32 22 48 ARTS & CULTURE ORGANIZATIONS FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE: EDITOR’S NOTE ..................... 07 Take What’s Beautiful and Make It More Beautiful 10 QUESTIONS WITH ......... 08 Kiel Klaphake BOOKMARKED ...................... 13 Olivia’s Book Club OFFICE DOORS ..................... 14 Ken Schutz, Executive director of Desert Botanical Garden CAREY’S CORNER ............... 18 Escaping Rock Bottom COVER STORY ...................... 22 ‘Riders’ Rides Again NEXT DOORS ......................... 28 At the Heard Museum, It’s All About What’s New STYLE UNLOCKED .............. 32 Patsy Lowry and the Spirit of Style A 2 ND ACT ................................. 37 A Guy With a Guitar CHARITY SPOTLIGHT ....... 41 Shemer Art Center KITCHEN DOORS ................. 44 Airport Eating CHEERS TO THE CHAIRS .. 46 Nan Howlett, Maja Langbein and Sandy Magruder OPEN DOORS ........................ 48 Fall 2019 Calendar + Arizona Broadway Theatre + Arizona Opera + Childsplay + Desert Botanical Garden + Heard Museum + Mesa Arts Center + Phoenix Art Museum + The Phoenix Symphony + Phoenix Theatre + Phoenix Zoo + Scottsdale Artists’ School + Shemer Art Center + Six Strings Acoustic + SMoCA TABLE OF CONTENTS { august 2019, volume 17, issue 8 }

TAKE WHAT’S BEAUTIFUL AND MAKE IT MORE BEAUTIFUL Fifteen years ago, I got an assignment to write about an artist whose name I didn’t know. He was a Phoenix native who painted Arizona landscapes and had worked as the art director of an ad agency in New York. I went to his studio, an unassuming building in Central Phoenix, and had one of the most enjoyable interviews of my career. His incandescent work filled the small room, resting humbly on the floor, tilted against walls. He was funny and welcoming and almost unbelievably nice, despite his international acclaim. After an hour of chatting, he offered me a book about his work and I went home to write a piece for the magazine I worked for at the time. When it came out, I got an email from him, saying something along the lines of “Hot damn, you can write.” Ed Mell made an impression on me then for his singularity, brilliance and kindness. So I was thrilled to chat with him again for this month’s cover story. And not quite as surprised when his colleagues Craig Bohmler, the composer of “Riders of the Purple Sage,” and Kristin Atwell Ford, the documentary filmmaker and co-producer of the opera, turned out to be similarly down-to-earth and talented. Same story goes for another Arizona institution featured in this issue. Patsy Lowry, artist, author and consummate hostess, recently invited me and some of the Frontdoors team to her home for breakfast. She greeted me at the door with a warm hug and hello, asked me to don one of her signature bejeweled headpieces, and led me to a tablescape arranged as artfully as a painting. Succulents, kachina dolls and handmade place cards (with names written on the front and back, lest you forget the name of the person you were sitting across from) festooned the joyous table, an obvious extension of Lowry’s abundant zest for life. She was generous with entertaining advice and led the room through one of her signature hostessing maneuvers — asking each guest to share a fact about herself that no one would ever guess. Soon the five of us were revealing personal anecdotes about our real selves, rather than the one who showed up at a stranger’s house for the first time. Two hours later, we found ourselves perched on Lowry’s bed, trying on her whimsical creations — jackets, blouses and headpieces meticulously decorated with beads, rickrack, flowers and any small treasure that captured Lowry’s delight. “I take what’s beautiful and make it more beautiful,” she told me, a philosophy that defines her art, home and life. Arizona is blessed with more than its fair share of artists — those driven, dynamic souls who work, play and say yes to the daunting call to express themselves. Enjoy meeting a few of them here as we salute some one-of-a-kind Arizonans who are not just great artists, but great people. Karen Werner EDITOR @kwerner409 EDITOR’S NOTE {on the job}