What's a Cenotaph? See Apache artist Bob Haozous' Creation

This scene is of a new and unusual installation near the Tampa Bay History Center (shown as the background to this spectacular artist's creation.) It is a "cenotaph," defined as "A monument erected in honor of a dead person whose remains lie elsewhere." The city of Tampa joined with members of the Seminole Tribe of Florida on September 21^st to dedicate this Cenotaph and Ceremonial Space just behind the new Tampa Bay History Center and alongside the Tampa Riverwalk and Garrison Channel. The city’s website, TampaGov.net, offers the following description of the cenotaph and Ceremonial Space: “American Indians throughout the Western Hemisphere have a unique and rightful connection to place. The cenotaph and Ceremonial Space in Cotanchobee / Fort Brooke, marks such a place. Once a thriving center for ancient indigenous chiefdoms until invasions in the 1500s by Spanish explorers, and as an early 1800s refuge for Creek (now Seminole) peoples in fleeing south from Alabama and Georgia from invasion by a federal government, this space has been a nexus of alternating peace and struggle. Heavy with the memories of federal wars on the Seminole to force their 1824 removal out of Florida to territories west, this place becomes a meaningful place ground. The cenotaph and Ceremonial Space mark a time of peace and reconciliation with the land as an indigenous place.”

The foundation under and around the cenotaph is further described: “A circle formed of bricks is separated into four quadrants, each corresponding to one of the four cardinal directions and possessing a culturally-appropriate color; yellow for the East, red for the North, black for the West, and white for the South. These colors are also found prominently in the flags of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. It is a Miccosukee belief that life spins in a circle starting in the east and moving to the north, west, and south. Native peoples almost universally understand the directional colors.” Go to the city’s website for more detail and photographs that show the cenotaph more clearly, HERE.

The cenotaph's creator is the renowned Native-American artist, Bob Haozous. He was born in Los Angeles, California in 1943, and spent some of his early years in Apache, Oklahoma. After service in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam war, he enrolled in the California College of Arts and Crafts where he received a Bachelors of Fine Arts Degree in Sculpture in 1971.He lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is a member of the Warm Springs Chiricahua Apache Tribe of Oklahoma. Museums that include his work include: The Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, The Philbrook Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, California. Several of New Mexico's museums also have collected his works, including: The Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos, The Museum of Indian art and Culture in Santa Fe, The Wheelwright Museum in Santa Fe, The Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, The Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, and The Roswell Museum and Art Center in Roswell. Internationally, his work is in the collections of: The Westphalian State Museum of Natural History in Munster, The Dresdner Bank Collection of Stuttgart, and The Museum fuer Weltkulturen in Frankfurt. In Norway his work is in the collection of The Trondheim Sjofartsmuseum in Trondheim. In 1999, Bob Haozous was selected with eight other contemporary Native-American artists to participate in the exhibition CEREMONIAL at the 1999 Venice Biennale in Venice, Italy. In 2001, Haozous served as advisor and participant in the Native-American exhibition UMBILICUS at the 2001 Venice Biennale. The National Museum of the American Indian's inaugural exhibit "Shared Visions" in Washington, DC selected Haozous' sculpture "Apache Pull Toy." Visit his website HERE. His cenotaph and this Ceremonial Space are well worth visiting and spending time with. It's a beautiful setting to begin with (on the waterfront and just steps from the History Center) but it is so informative about our history and the original native people who inhabited the Tampa Bay area for thousands of years.

WELCOME: Tsutomu Otsuka is the newest Follower of Tampa Florida Photo. He is an award-winning photographer and editor in chief for the Kyoto Photo Press in Japan. His profile states that he uses digital but that he also “loves medium and large format film cameras as Rolleiflex, Deardorff View 8x10,” and other fine film cameras. He freelances and is a member of the Japan Professional Photographers Society and the Photographic Science Society Japan. His photography is impressive and demonstrates a great photographic talent.

Visit Tsutomu at both of his blogs: Stroll on Kyoto Gardens HERE

and Camera Works Blogger HERE

To learn more about his work and career click HERE.

Big Max is more than Giant Pick-Up Sticks

Does everyone remember the game Pick -Up Sticks? Or Pick-A-Stick? This sculpture, Big Max, reminds me of playing the game as a kid. Big Max is part of Drawing In Space: The Peninsula Project that is a state-wide exhibition of very large sculpture placed in seven cities in Florida. Created by the celebrated American contemporary sculptor John Henry, Big Max is BIG and wonderful to explore at a distance and up close and from below. It is bright red and makes you smile and want to drum on its side to hear the side it makes. It’s as though a little kid oh so carefully positioned and balanced these giant metal pick-up sticks and then stood back and said, Don’t breath. Don't move. But when you actually visit, you must walk under and around the piece and imagine its weight, construction and balance. But do breath; this is a lot of sculpture to cover. Big Max sits firmly on the south side of Tampa’s MacDill Park, part of the Tampa Riverwalk that runs along our downtown riverfront. Made of steel and completed in 1995, the sculpture is 75-feet long and 33-high - as tall as a three story building.

Glazer Children's Museum enjoys a prime location on the Hillsborough River

The Glazer Children's Museum is well under construction and on track to open in 2010. Its riverfront location, just beside the soon to open Tampa Museum of Art, is part of a transformation of the area between the Hillsborough River and Ashley Drive. The 53,000 square foot facility will provide an opportunity for children and all the adults in the lives to play and learn in new, creative and totally fun and unexpected ways. This afternoon's bright blue skies, puffy white clouds and warm weather made it an ideal day to enjoy some leisurely boating on the bay and river. This view, from Plant Park, provides the perfect vantage point to watch progress on the building of the new museums, addition to the Riverwalk and restoration of Kiley Park as the entire riverfront is remade to the city's plan for a Cultural Arts District in Tampa's downtown.

SkyWatch Friday #55

Directly on the Hillsborough River, just south of the Sheraton Tampa Riverwalk Hotel, Kennedy Boulevard and the Lafayette Bridge, is a recently completed segment of the Riverwalk. The Riverwalk is a City of Tampa initiative designed to provide an accessible, public walkway that links the entire downtown waterfront, from north of the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, around past the Tampa Convention Center, to the Tampa Bay History Center. Much of this ambitious project is completed. This sunset was shot from MacDill Park which faces Media General, the University of Tampa and the bridge over the river. MacDill Park, named for Tampa's MacDill Air Force Base, is dedicated to the contributions of the military to our community. To learn more about RIVERWALK, click HERE.

Visit Skywatch Friday to see the beauty and wonders of the world's most magnificent skies. It's always an amazing show.