Scottsdale and Tempe’s IN FLUX Coffee Talks for Prospective Artists

If you’re looking to toss your creative hat (and ideas) into the second cycle IN FLUX, Tuesday’s the time to ask questions. Scottsdale and Tempe IN FLUX Project Managers Kirstin Van Cleef and Maja Aurora will host a coffee talk about the public art projects that aim to activate empty storefronts along Scottsdale’s…

Robrt Pela’s Tour of the Westward Ho

While hunting for underground spaces and secrets for this year’s Best of Phoenix issue, I landed at the Westward Ho in downtown Phoenix a few times; the historic building was rumored to have a tunnel to the City’s Gold Spot Bowling Alley — what’s now a big, vacant hole beneath…

A Design-Inspired Ephemera Crawl with Carol Panaro-Smith and Josie Cirincione

Most people go antiquing to nab that one-of-a-kind chair or coffee table. But local artists Carol Panaro-Smith and Josie Cirincione go antiquing to find ephemera, or antique paper goods they can use in their next projects.This Saturday, Panaro-Smith and Cirincione, both instructors at Gilbert’s Art Intersection, hosted an Ephemera Crawl…

Call for Artists: Scottsdale and Tempe Public Art’s IN FLUX

Tempe’s Mill Avenue and Scottsdale’s Marshall Way have already strung and flipped the switches of their annual holiday bubble lights, but the two cities’ public art programs have a different kind of street-side activation in mind. The second cycle of IN FLUX — a program that commissions, promotes and enables the installation of…

Cycle: Tour of Mural City

The walls of central and downtown Phoenix have been springing to life over the past few years thanks to local artists looking to define this community through public art. Anyone who follows Jackalope Ranch semi-regularly has picked up on these works via Mural City, our ongoing look at public murals…

Call for Artists: Re-imagine Downtown at Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory

The Phoenix Urban Research Lab (PURL) is home ASU’s design students, local design professionals, and a 20-by-20 foot model of Downtown. The 1:32-scale model began as four panels in 2005. Since then, it’s grown and changed with models created by ASU students that reflect the city’s ever-evolving landscape. This year (and for…

Nominate Arizona Creatives for the 2012 Governor’s Arts Awards

recognize creatives who have achieved and contributed to the Arizona arts community.The awards, presented by Arizona Citizens for the Arts, the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and the Office of the Governor of Arizona, are given annually to artists, educators, business, communities, and individuals throughout the state…

Joseph “Sentrock” Perez on the Downtown Phoenix Public Market

It’s about time Phoenix sees some serious mural love. In the interest of giving credit to their artists and because we’re losing track of the times we’ve said, “Whoa, when did that go up?”, we bring you Mural City, a series on the murals springing up around town — their artists,…

Carrie Marill’s “Black Mountain – Cave Creek”

This month, Jackalope Ranch opened its first curated exhibition, You Are Here: A Collection of Maps of Phoenix, at Regular Gallery. While you still have a chance to check out the show, which will be up until November 12, we’ll give you a little background on each creation. We spoke with Monica Aissa Martinez, Safwat Saleem, David Quan, Sarah Hurwitz, Thomas…

Thomas “Breeze” Marcus’ Hohokam Canal System

This month, Jackalope Ranch opened its first curated exhibition, You Are Here: A Collection of Maps of Phoenix, at Regular Gallery. While you still have a chance to check out the show, which will be up until November 12, we’ll give you a little background on each creation.  We spoke with Monica Aissa Martinez, Safwat Saleem, David Quan,…

‘Family Circus’ Creator Bil Keane (1922-2011)

Bil Keane, a Phoenix cartoonist, started drawing Family Circus in 1960. The artist was born in Pennsylvania, served in the Army, met his wife (and inspiration for his “Mommy” character) in Australia, and landed in Paradise Valley just a year before he began documenting much of his family life and odd daily circumstances…

Sarah Hurwitz’s Phoenix Proper

​​This month, Jackalope Ranch opened its first curated exhibition, You Are Here: A Collection of Maps of Phoenix, at Regular Gallery. While you still have a chance to check out the show, which will be up until November 12, we’ll give you a little background on each creation. We spoke with Monica Aissa Martinez, Safwat Saleem, David Quan, and Sue…

Shine: Your Pocket Guide to Scottsdale

​It’s all about flashing lights as Scottsdale welcomes a few new clubs, bars, and galleries and gears up for its holiday season.  If you’re headed in the direction, need a few spots to check out after a show, or are just looking for a few things to buy/see/eat/drink, we’ve got…

Rico Solinas’ Saw-Blade Paintings Elevate a Folksy Tradition

My grandfather died, quickly and unexpectedly, on Thanksgiving Day in 1987. My mother returned from his Ohio funeral with a suitcase full of Grandpa’s circular saw blades. Mom, a prolific oil painter, gessoed the blades and used them as canvases for landscapes that she gave to each of her five…