A picture is now worth 500 words. At least, that’s the going rate in the heart of downtown Phoenix, a heart represented by ghostwriter Joey Robert Parks’ brainchild, “26 Blocks.” The show, which opens Friday, May 7, paired photographers and writers, assigned each pair a specific city block, then set…

Ancient Greeks celebrated spring in true Dionysian fashion by drinking, dancing, and sacrificing. In fact, those early festivals were often held in honor of Dionysus himself. As we know, the dude could party. Well, so can we. This weekend marks the annual A Taste of Greece festival, where celebrants can…

Cruda, mexicana, picante. Whatever you do, don’t – and why would you? – order salsa inglesa. That’s Worcestershire sauce, decidedly not America’s number-one condiment. Rather, it’s salsa, and more than 75 rookie and professional chefs make the stuff onsite while competing for hot and mild honors in restaurant, business, and…

West side, represent. In 2008, sisters-in-law Christa Esquibel and Emy Porter saw the need for “fresh and local” west of I-17, so they took a good idea and grew it. What started as hocking eggs in a front yard has become the monthly Momma’s Organic Market, featuring 60 to 100…

A group of ASU honors painting undergraduates recently founded the group, 2-D Or Not 2-D to foster community, motivation, and service among student artists. In addition to outreach projects, weekly meetings, lectures, and paint-a-thons, their third exhibition “Carnivál,” opens on Monday. This group shows moxie along with art as 20-plus…

In his 1946 essay on Alexander Calder, Jean-Paul Sartre wrote, “A ‘mobile,’ one might say, is a little private celebration, an object defined by its movement and having no other existence.” Calder, an engineer by training, had two major influences: the sky and the circus. Marcel Duchamp called Calder’s sculptures…

In his 1946 essay on Alexander Calder, Jean-Paul Sartre wrote, “A ‘mobile,’ one might say, is a little private celebration, an object defined by its movement and having no other existence.” Calder, an engineer by training, had two major influences: the sky and the circus. Marcel Duchamp called Calder’s sculptures…

If you’re a foodie, you may want to sit down before reading the remainder of this piece. This weekend, the Phoenix Art Museum and Local First Arizona host Devoured, an annual culinary event that features some of Arizona’s finest chefs, vintners, and purveyors of all that is local and delicious…

Where society tells us to look away, Chris Rush’s photorealistic Conté crayon drawings of children and adults with physical and mental disabilities encourage us to look – and we mean really look – as we register their strange and glowing beauty. In Rush’s “Stare,” a ten-year retrospective, we’re drawn in…

The weather’s beautiful, but this year, you’re skipping the spa days and 18 holes of golf. Recession guilt, right? Well, do you think your wallet can swing an afternoon of free outdoor jazz? Catch El Pedregal’s Spring Wine & Jazz Concert Series. The upscale destination boasts fancy boutiques, galleries, and…

There’s a lot of epidermis showing this month at Lisa Sette Gallery, as two artists take radically different approaches to exploring the body’s largest organ. Mexico-born creative type Claudio Dicochea uses casta – a tradition of 18th century paintings that recorded the racial mixing of Colonial Mexico – as the…

The Heard Museum Guild, a 600-strong volunteer arm of the world-famous museum, has a simple and obvious mission: to educate the public about American Indian heritage and culture. But, as the Guild points out, to teach, one must first learn. To that end, it sponsors an impressive series of lectures…

Valley dwellers know all too well what it means to live on the grid. Painter, photographer, and printmaker Chuck Close knows, too. He’s been working on the grid for more than thirty years, relying on the structural guide to create enormous portraits that have the precise nature of digital prints,…

Hard to believe it’s already been a year since we tore up a turkey leg and took in a jousting match. The end of football season always marks the beginning of nerd culture here in the Valley with the Arizona Renaissance Festival and Artisan Marketplace. The usual rides, feasting, and…

There’s a lot of epidermis showing this month at Lisa Sette Gallery, as two artists take radically different approaches to exploring the body’s largest organ. Mexico-born creative type Claudio Dicochea uses casta – a tradition of 18th century paintings that recorded the racial mixing of Colonial Mexico – as the…

Tattoo shops have a certain intimidating charm. Despite Rancid and Disturbed (punctuated, thankfully, by the occasional and soothing Pearl Jam or Green Day tune) piped in through the sound system, they are orderly (even if Arizona has virtually no oversight or regulation — most of this state’s few laws relate…

This day marks 65 years since the liberation of Auschwitz and museums in Spain, Canada, Hungary, Mexico, Kosovo, and Finland are joining the Phoenix Art Museum in a humanitarian chain for the realization of world peace. The museums are screening Finnish filmmaker Rax Rinnekangas’ hour-long documentary The Colours of the…

In part of its ongoing First Friday shows, the Phoenix Center for the Arts’ debut show of 2010 is a juried exhibition entitled “Japanese Friendship Garden: Photography Exhibition” and features images taken by members and lovers of the garden (Ro Ho En), located at Margaret T. Hance Park over the…

We’ve got a new year, a new theatre company, and a new take on an epistolary chestnut. Arizona stage veteran Eric Schoen (formerly of Southwest Shakespeare Company and Arizona Jewish Theatre) created Class 6 Theatre, a company that produces intimate shows with small groups of local actors. C6T launches its…

In part of its ongoing First Friday shows, the Phoenix Center for the Arts’ debut show of 2010 is a juried exhibition entitled “Japanese Friendship Garden: Photography Exhibition” and features images taken by members and lovers of the garden (Ro Ho En), located at Margaret T. Hance Park over the…

At a recent reading, author Sherman Alexie lamented his sons’ relationship to music. Gone are the days of waiting for physical albums to come out, waiting in line at Tower Records, peeling off the cellophane, and gathering ‘round the turntable in eager anticipation of the moment the needle hits virgin…

Times are dark, people. An old Chinese proverb advises that it’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. So quit cursing and see a wee, warm exhibition on Roosevelt Row called “Soot: Handmade Candle Caddies.” Alex Ozers, who has a piece in the show, says his riveted…