Mary Bedy Photography

After the Thaw     Art is subjective, yes, but have you even looked around you and been mesmerized by the pattern of something mundane? The odd shadow shape, the cracks in the sidewalk that look like “something” that you can’t quite name, the worn paint on the parking lot pavement. No? You’ve never noticed these things? Might I suggest you take a closer look. 9th Street 2 When I was a kid - up to the age of about 12, I was attracted to art - paintings and sculpture of all kinds, but I didn’t really like or appreciate what would be considered abstract art. Art without a defined and recognizable subject didn’t do anything for me, then I discovered Paul Klee and Joan Miro and Piet Mondrian, and I started looking at abstract art differently. These painters spoke to me. With Piet Mondrian, not so much his later works for which he is most famous, but his earlier stuff whereby he took a tree or the shape of a pier and abstracted them until they were just shapes reminiscent of the actual thing

  San Xavier del Bac mission near Tucson, Arizona is a beautiful example of Spanish mission architecture and was built as a Jesuit mission in 1783-1797. It was named after Francis Xavier who was a co-founder of the Jesuit order in Europe. At one point in the church’s history, Charles III banned the Jesuits from the mission and turned it over to the Franciscans. This old mission has been called the Sistine Chapel of the West, although that “label” has been criticized by some as being “overblown”. It is the oldest European structure in Arizona, having been constructed after the original building was destroyed. The O’odam provided the labor for the building of the newer church, and it is still an active catholic church today.       Most of the interior and exterior is original, however some major renovations have had to be done over the years because of water damage. The interior painting had to be painstakingly restored in 1978 due to water seepage into the walls. Earlier on, repairs wer