Outpost - Arivaca, Arizona

A dust storm signaling the beginning of the 2011 summer monsoon season rolls into Phoenix early Tuesday eveing July 5th. Time elapsed. Digital Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ35. Photographed by Bart Santello. Music: A PRODUCE.

“Photographs from New Mexico” (Bart Santello - 2009)

After I took this photo, it reminded me of an ambient-electronic musician I listen to; Jeff Grienke, who has a CD titled “Cities in Fog”.  I took the photograph on a December morning in the Roosevelt section of downtown Phoenix.

Anasazi architecture is still with us. The Pueblo Bonito ruin of Chaco Canyon in Northwest New Mexico is just one of many buildings in this desolate canyon, steeped in both mysticism and an ancient engineering accomplishment.  What did this geometry mean to them?  The idea of a circular room in the human context symbolized the prefered space of a wise person. We can ponder why this is so.  We still have some remaining achitecture to examine and speculate on their story.  In order to gain an insight into their thinking of symbolic space, I am recreating Anasazi architecture in my natural building projects in Arivaca, using locally available materials such as stone, clay, sand and straw.  I plan to use the circular room I’m constructing as my studio for digital filmmaking and post-production.  I feel sure the environment will be calming and insiring.  Yet at the sime time I plan to be attentive to the idea of the “circle” and the thinking behind the motivation of the Anasazi.

Link to…CobStudio

Scott Hellon of Point of View Pictures examining an edit to his feature film “Decision to Ask Why” at Psychotropic Film’s Phoenix ‘post’ studio downtown. Photo by Bart Santello

The adobe out-building got hammered last winter when an El Nino storm with 70 mph gusts and 5” of rain pummeled the west wall and collapsed it when a section of lime plaster fell off and exposed the adobe wall to the elements.  After 6-months of every other weekend working to restore the out-building, I appreciate the level of effort required to reconstruct the damage, the lessons learned from it; and all the good friends that came through in a critical situation.

I was driving down the Arivaca Road at sunset a few nights back and Baboquivari Peak was looking good as the foreground to a beautiful early monsoon season sunset.  So I pulled over and took this shot at 16x with my Panasonic Lumix FZ35 digital camera.  I’m glad I did. 

Phoenix….An island city in the heart of what was the last frontier of the desert southwest.  A modern city in a state not even 100-years in the union. It’s growth has been explosive and with it people looking for something new.  At the same time in Arizona there is a sense of some old guard - a residual of 19th century ruggedness - that is still a guiding hand over governemnt and the conduct of business interests.  The sense of one foot in the future and one foot in the past, tempering what would give Phoenix a truly hip feel of a west coast city.  But energy from the sun can transform Arizona into an independent city-state as energy resourses in the 21st century begin to become depleated and costly.  What future will be embraced? It’s an exciting time be in the southwest.

Peggy and Angela converse with Don at his and Bob’s place in the Willow District, Phoenix.  Photo taken by Bart Santello with a Panasonic Lumix FZ35 Digital camera.

Cell phone camera pictures taken by  Bart Santello - Arivaca, Arizona.

1)  Heading North - Arivaca, Arizona

2)  Stephen Krystek in the La Gitana Bar Arivaca, Arizona

3)  Adobe and Solar - Arivaca, Arizona

4)  Peggy on Beach in Santa Monica, California

5)  Tarantula on Adobe Building - Arivaca, Arizona