Taliesin West, Tour Guide, 2008
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We went on the Taliesin West tour back in 2005 and did it again this trip.
We all enjoyed that first tour. And I got some great photos, a couple of which I later used as a base for digital paintings. But this tour was conducted by an architect and former student of Taliesin West and I’m glad we went on it as his focus was different from the other tour guide so the experience was like same setting but a very different itinerary.
This tour guide’s name was Jason. Frank Lloyd Wright didn’t design for individuals as tall as Jason.
The first tour guide spoke a lot about the sculptures and other pieces of art at Taliesin. She was engaging and it was interesting but I frankly don’t like most of the sculpture at Taliesin West. Still, she was convivial and very friendly with H.o.p., who was the only child on the tour, and he listened with ardent devotion. She made sure to deliver facts to H.o.p. that might interest a child in particular. That tour was especially attractive for H.o.p. as he enjoyed the sculpture and the woman spent a good deal of time in the sculpture garden and spoke on the works.
Jason’s focus was on Wright and the architectural details of Taliesin West and Wright’s philosophy and the history of Taliesin West. He was knowledgeable and entertaining. He pretty much walked right through the sculpture garden without much commentary and I didn’t feel cheated. Some of the pieces in the sculpture garden did, however, seem to be different from our last go round and H.o.p., with his love for sculpture, told me later he wished he could have spent a longer time in the garden.
H.o.p., having previously been to Taliesin West, has since seen documentaries on Frank Lloyd Wright’s life. After Jason’s introduction, H.o.p. leaned over to me and asked if he should raise his arm and tell about the murders at Taliesin East as the guide hadn’t mentioned them, but Jason eventually got to that part of Frank Lloyd Wright’s life. He covered quite a lot in an hour and a half.
In the photo above, you can see H.o.p. in the background with his hat beginning to remind a little more of the Beverly Hillbillies than a Sergio Leone western.
Not long before this, the time came for H.o.p. to show off his knowledge on Taliesin West and Frank Lloyd Wright (which isn’t much as it has all been eclipsed by the murder story).
“Do you know who built Taliesin West?” the tour guide asked.
“Slaves!” H.o.p. excitedly answered.
Hmmm.
Yes, H.o.p. was off by a few years on that one but in relaying history and current events to H.o.p. I have, admittedly, tended to try to give a more 3-d view. H.o.p. knows that slaves still exist in this world, he doesn’t think of them as past tense. And I talk about people working for slave labor wages. Plus, he’s been on enough tours here in the Deep South and whenever someone asks, “Do you know who built…?” the answer is always going to be, “Slaves.” His was a knee jerk reaction.
The tour guide got a big laugh out of this. H.o.p. realized his error and said, “Oh, yeah, students!”
On the way out to Arizona, H.o.p. had piped up from the back seat wanting to know more about labor activist, Joe Hill.
Weren’t we surprised? Marty looked at me like, “Well, how about this?” I have never taught H.o.p. about Joe Hill. Nor has Marty. But H.o.p. had learned about Joe Hill elsewhere and something we were talking about had brought Joe Hill to his mind and so he spoke up.
So, that’s what was going on in H.o.p.’s mind. Who built beautiful place? Slaves! The unrecognized downtrodden worker!
Oh, yeah, students!
Jason didn’t do the hard sell but at the end mentioned three issues of the Frank Lloyd Wright Quarterly on sale at the back of the room, one on Taliesin West, another on Taliesin East and a third on the architectural school at Taliesin West, so I stopped by the table and purchased all three because the tour had me primed for purchasing them. Then we headed down to the gift shop where there was a book that wasn’t there our last time through and was just the book for which I’d been looking that first time through, “The Vision of Frank Lloyd Wright” published in 2007. A nice overview for a great price and I got that as well.
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