Recently, local artist Nika Kaiser has been more known for her video work, directing music videos for local favorites like Prom Body and Gabriel Sullivan. Her current photo exhibit, "Desert Varnish," in the Hotel Congress bar and lobby area is like her video work in that it looks at spiritualism and metaphysics in the context of the region with, what she refers to as, "characters in a fragmented story."

Ten striking images—two large and eight smaller—seem to tell a part of a story, maybe not the beginning or end, but a definite glimpse into a world that seems almost familiar. Kaiser says this was part of her intention for the show.

"I want to have the viewers process beyond that moment that’s presented to them," Kaiser says.

Beyond that, her work bears strong ties to the desert—"the American west." Seven of the ten photos were taken within a hundred or so miles of Tucson, with just three shot in Utah, Oregon and New Mexico. In that setting, she melds broad landscape shots with portrait-like photos of flora and fauna, as well as those characters that she invents. She says she seeks to blur the line between human and nature in this exhibit.

"I wanted all of the images to be both portraits and landscape at the same time without a division between man—or woman—and nature," she says.

To that point, Kaiser says she's particularly inspired by representations of the female form and its relation to nature. One photo uses the shape of surrounding yucca to play inversely with the shape of a twirling girl's skirt. In that way, Kaiser says the character is playing in nature, not being in opposition to it, and allowing herself to be vulnerable to nature in a positive way.

Though, in terms of palette, Kaiser's photos use a lot of bright, vibrant colors, there is a feeling of darkness to them. She says that darkness comes from her metaphysical and surreal inspirations. 

"It’s that quality of the unknown that is disconcerting," she says. "When things are just outside of reality there’s uneasiness."

The pieces in the show exist in a space where "science and the metaphysical align," according to Kaiser. Even the name "Desert Varnish" alludes to a "dark iridescent coating on rocks in arid regions."

"It's considered both an animal and a geological composite," she says. "It kind of exists in this place that transcends logic and becomes spiritual."

Kaiser clearly draws from the aesthetic and history of the southwest, but she is also inspired by experimental filmmakers Alejandro Jodorowsky and Maya Deren as well as photographer Lola Alvarez Bravo. Kaiser replicated one of Bravo's pieces in the show. 

With the space—Hotel Congress—in mind, she crafted photos expressly for the hotel, though she didn't realize until she was hanging her works for the show that she would love how much they interacted with the mural work on the lobby walls.

"I wanted to show the magic—I know that word is overused—but the magic of the landscape here along with the richness of history here," Kaiser says.

You can view Nika Kaiser's "Desert Varnish" at Hotel Congress now through May 27. The show is free to view.

Google defines the word bacchanal as "an occasion of wild and drunken revelry" (please don't look up what Webster's defines it as), and Borderlands' first ever Bacchanal promises to be just that. With two days of totally free music, art, comedy and, of course, beer (the beer isn't so free), the brand new community event will feature a range of entertainment options on Saturday, April 11 and Sunday, April 12. 

The event kicks off at Borderlands Brewing Co., located at 119 E. Toole Ave., on Saturday at noon where attendees can peruse works of art from a range of Tucson artists. Organizer Ryan Malco says the event is an opportunity for them to showcase pieces from locals who might rarely get the chance to be seen otherwise.

"This community has so many wonderful artists who don't get opportunity to show their work," Malco says. "Borderlands is very happy to offer Tucson's artists a place to be seen by the community."

The New York Times examines how a developer is destroying murals painted by Ted DeGrazia in downtown Phoenix:

The 65-year-old mural, a tribute to alcohol, depicted guards armed with shotguns overseeing a still; women hovering like ghosts, a glass in each hand; and a dancer with one leg raised high, bloomers in full view. Even to the best-trained eye, it did not look like much. But the work represented a rare link to its creator, Ted DeGrazia, a wildly prolific artist born when Arizona was just a territory, whose career followed a trajectory that in many ways paralleled the ascent of the region that served as his muse.

Just as Mr. DeGrazia’s legacy faded after his death in 1982, the mural, along with a smaller one in the same building, was largely ignored for years. But the murals began to draw attention recently when the building was condemned to make way for new construction. The developer plans to turn the site into a luxury apartment complex, loaded with amenities like a fitness center, a pool and rooftop decks with sweeping views to entice the millennials who have been flocking to the city’s downtown.
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In the district here known as Roosevelt Row, an eclectic enclave where neglected warehouses have been transformed into art galleries and bungalows into bookshops, this shoe box of a building, adorned with a trio of colorful birds on an outer wall, long fit right in. Threatened with its loss, longtime residents mobilized, determined to keep out what they saw as an outside business trying to capitalize on their neighborhood’s homegrown appeal.

The building, which served over the years as one of the city’s first drag clubs and years later as the headquarters for a mayor’s re-election campaigns, was an artifact well worth saving, said Bob Diehl, a neighborhood resident who started a petition to block demolition.

“We have to stop destroying history in order to put up boring stuff,” Mr. Diehl said. “We’re replacing interesting, funky urban stuff with dead sidewalks.”

Starting on Friday, April 3, Yume Japanese Gardens of Tucson will be presenting an exhibition of beautifully crafted origami works from a local artist. 

Since 1996, origami artist M. Craig, who has lived in both the U.S. and Japan, has taught the art of Japanese paper folding to Tucsonans in conjunction with the Tucson Origami Club. Through workshops at the Tucson Botanical Gardens, Pima County public libraries and the Tucson Children’s Museum among many other local organizations and events for Tucson Meet yourself, Craig has carried on Japanese traditions in an effort to share a bit of that culture in town. 

Known for crafting both miniature and life-sized pieces, Craig's work has been selected to show at the Sonoran Desert Museum among other places. 

Craig's origami will be on view from April 3 until May 2 with admission to the gardens running at $9 for adults. There's a free opening reception on Friday from 5 until 7 p.m. at the gardens, located at  2130 N. Alvernon Way. For more information on this exhibit or Yume Japanese Gardens in general, call 332-2928 or visit the garden's website.

Downtown has a new gallery dedicated to the works of Jeff Ferst. The Artful Living Gallery and Studio, located on the northeast corner of Stone Avenue and Broadway Boulevard, quietly opened its doors a couple weeks ago, luring curious passersby with bright works.

Ferst says he's always been attracted to vibrant color in art and it was the desert's bright color palette that drew him to move from Canada to Arizona in the first place. 

"In general, I'm inspired by where we live—the desert," Ferst says. "The lights and colors here made me feel more at home."

His pieces that are currently hanging in the new gallery space are primarily works of bright desert sunset landscape, which benefit from the splashes of light coming in from the space's large open windows. However, Ferst also has a few abstract pieces hanging as well.

"I've always had a love of abstraction. I put the same energy and emotion into those pieces as I do a landscape piece," he says. "It's about my interaction with the environment. It's like telling a story."


As a painter primarily, Ferst has found a way to make his work more accessible in a line of "licensed merchandise," as he puts it. That includes silk scarves, pillows, rugs, yoga mats, flip flops and mugs, which he thinks will do well in their new downtown setup. In fact, Ferst thinks he will enjoy being downtown more than his previous midtown studio, as well.

"I decided that I really wanted to be downtown," he says. "I missed the interaction during the day."

One of the main benefits of Ferst's new gallery is that his studio is also on site. That means on any given day you can walk past on Stone and see him at work through those large windows. 

You can see both Ferst's landscape and abstract pieces at his gallery now at the Artful Living Gallery and Studio. The gallery is open Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. or until 4 p.m. November through April. You can also make an appointment for another time by calling 203-7004.

Bon is known to sell adorable novelties, clothing, kitchenware and more in Broadway Village, but owner Crystal Flynt is moving on from the complex and over to Five Points.

"The energy was changing there the past couple of years," Flynt says. "It just didn't feel like the right place for us anymore."

So Flynt and her mother/co-owner Bonnie Flynt decided to pack Bon up and move her wares next door to 5 Points Market and Cafe Desta. She says that her new neighbors are one of the reasons she enjoys her new space so much already.

"It's just such a nice, refreshing environment. We're surrounded by nice people," she says.

Bon carries a variety of clothing for men and women, jewelry, baby clothes and toys, blankets, quilts, books, linens, soaps, candles, greeting cards and more. She says her new space, despite actually being a bit smaller, will carry more kitchenware, glassware, cookbooks and linens than the previous location.

"It's more concisely put together here," she says. "It seemed to me like there just wasn't a good place to buy things for your kitchen that wasn't some big chain."

While my wallet already aches at the thought of a bulked-up Bon glassware section, it seems that Flynt is excited to open at her new location at 760 S. Stone Ave. The grand opening will be Saturday at 10 a.m. After that, Bon will be open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m.

You can call Bon at 795-2272 for more information or for a sneak peak into the gorgeous new store off Stone, scroll down and click through the slideshow.

La Frontera Arizona and the Tucson International Mariachi Conference are joining forces once again to bring the Old Pueblo the Tucson Mariachi Festival. Now in its 33rd consecutive year, the fest is the largest and longest running mariachi fest

The event will consist of four days of student workshops and live performances from Wednesday, April 8 through Saturday April 11 for thousands of attendees. On Thursday, April 9, a $10 student showcase concert will give more than 250 elementary through college aged performers from around the country the chance to showcase their musical and folklórico dance skills.

The whole festival will come together on Friday, April 10 for the Espectacular Concert, which will pay tribute to mariachi legend Nati Cano and feature his ensemble Los Camperos de Nati Cano starting at 7 p.m. Tickets for that event, which takes place at Casino del Sol, are available online through the casino's website for $20 to $40, depending on seating. Proceeds from the concert will go to benefit Children’s Services at La Frontera Center.

Then on Saturday, Aprill 11, the Tucson Mariachi Festival will cap it all off with a full day of music and dance called the Fiesta de Garibaldi. Tickets for the poolside mariachi party are just $10.

For more information on all of the events happening in conjunction with the Tucson Mariachi Festival and to purchase tickets to the Fiesta and Student Showcase, visit the Tucson Mariachi Festival website.

It's time to get those creative juices flowing because the fourth annual Park Place Chalk Art Festival is poised to beautify the sidewalks of the mall, located off of Broadway Boulevard.

Amateur and aspiring artists and dabblers in the craft can take up a stick of chalk and start making something colorful and bright on the brick walkways in the designated community participation areas. For kids 3 to 13 years of age, a children's area will allow them to create their own works of art.

If chalk art is more of a spectator sport for you, no worries—over a dozen professional artists will be on site making intricate large scale, but temporary pieces for the event. Participating muralists this year include Matt Cotton, Wesley Fawcett Creigh, Carolyn Watson Dubisch, Ignacio Garcia and more. You can find those murals in the South and North outdoor walkways, as well as indoors at the Sears wing.

The event is also seeking volunteers for the festival, which takes place on Saturday, March 28 from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. and Sunday, March 29 from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. If you're interested in helping out or looking for more information on the event in general, visit SAACA's website. Admission to the event is free.

Good news, theater fans! Arizona Theatre Company is offering our readers a 50 percent discount on tickets for their remaining Romeo and Juliet shows. 

You can get your tickets online or by calling the box office at 622-2823. TWEEKLY is the promocode.

An overview of the production from Arizona Theatre Company:

ATC’s first ever production of Shakespeare’s poetic masterpiece.

Jealousy. Prejudice. Betrayal. And the chance that true love could actually conquer all. Romeo and Juliet comes to vibrant life through the inventive talents of award-winning director Kirsten Brandt and designer David Lee Cuthbert, whose state-of-the-art scenery, lighting and projections bring new life to the warring world of the Capulets and Montagues. Romeo and Juliet like you’ve never seen before!

“Bold, ambitious, and stirring...Brandt has become a disciplined and inventive theatrical storyteller.” – San Diego Union-Tribune

And and excerpt from our review of the play:

Brandt's places the tale in the 1960s, a time of cultural revolution in the United States and in Europe as it was rebuilding after WW II and forging an identity less closely associated with the Roman Catholic Church. It seems legitimate enough, and the new context does allow for some touches many of us recognize (and are actually quite fun, like the bright orange Vespa that silently motors across the stage from time to time.)

But the story works here, as it would in many settings, because it is a universal one. Young love rashly crosses boundaries set by parents; the lovers challenge the feuds of families they had no part in creating; the blood-bought and blind loyalty to familial or political or sectarian alliances set us against each other and inevitably cause us great harm. It is always tragic, just as it is in the particular story of "Romeo and Juliet."

Overall, this is a fine production which allows the story to unfold in all its horrors: brutal murders taking the lives of members of both the Montague and Capulet clans; Romeo's avenging the death of his cousin and being banished just after he and Juliet have been married in secret; and the plot hatched by the Friar that goes horribly awry, resulting in the deaths of two teenagers who have vowed to look to the future, refusing to cling to the past.

One of downtown's top art galleries is no longer a downtown art gallery. That's right folks, The Drawing Studio has moved from its place on Sixth Avenue, next to the future Johnny Gibson's. 

Although it might seem like a loss to the downtown community, Chris Novak, business manager for the gallery, says the move will be good.

"We are still in the process of finishing up the move and putting the finishing touches on our new space but we are very excited," Novak says.

The Drawing Studio's new location is in the building Ted's Country Store used to be, located near Glenn Street at 2760 N. Tucson Blvd. The space will be a permanent home to the gallery. To stay up to date with the new space, follow The Drawing Studio on Facebook.