Robrt Pela

Phoenix

Writer at Phoenix Magazine

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Articles

Exposed Brick, Vintage Charm and a Zen Pool: A Historic Phoenix Bungalow Reimagined

3 weeks ago | phgmag.com | Robrt Pela

Designer Joel Contreras honors the past with an updated home renovation. By Robrt L. Pela | Photography by Mark Lipczynski “I don’t believe in re-creating the past,” says designer Joel Contreras. He’s talking about the 1921 Craftsman bungalow in North Central Phoenix’s Los Olivos historic district , which he lovingly restored and where he and his family make their home. “But I do believe in paying homage,” he says.
Al Beadle's Forgotten Phoenix Office Now Hosts One of the City's Most Inspiring Design Studios

3 weeks ago | phgmag.com | Robrt Pela

Al Beadle’s Forgotten Phoenix Office Now Hosts One of the City’s Most Inspiring Design Studios Architect Alfred Beadle’s former office is still home to design. By Robrt L. Pela | Photography by Scott Sandler The Green Room is mostly white.
Peek Inside the Studio of one of the Valley’s Most Fascinating Architects

2 months ago | phgmag.com | Robrt Pela

Peek Inside the Studio of one of the Valley’s Most Fascinating Architects Inside the studio (and mind) of celebrated Arizona architect Eddie Jones.
Culture Club: Over-Chering

Mar 13, 2025 | phoenixmag.com | Robrt Pela

The Cher Show is coming to the Mesa Arts Center, and I’ve been trying to talk myself into going. I’m not embarrassed to admit that I’m a great, big, giant Cher fan, but I’ve never loved watching actors portray famous people. I’m still recovering from seeing Tovah Feldshuh play Kate Hepburn in some cruddy TV movie in the late ’70s.
Studio Session: Artist Heather Weller

Mar 13, 2025 | phoenixmag.com | Robrt Pela

Artist Heather Weller might have ended up a chef. “I was into baking in high school,” she recalls. “And I signed up for a culinary arts class, but it was full. Somehow I ended up in Intro to Art. Like Bob Ross says, it was a happy accident.”Weller, who teaches art at the same Phoenix high school she attended as a kid, somehow managed to miss lessons on perspective and shading skills. “I had to teach myself to paint,” she says of the large-scale oil paintings she makes.
Why Scottsdale Artists' School is a Hidden Gem for Valley Creatives

Feb 6, 2025 | phgmag.com | Robrt Pela

Why Scottsdale Artists’ School is a Hidden Gem for Valley Creatives Hiding in plain sight, the nationally respected Scottsdale Artists’ School remains a mystery to many locals. By Robrt L.
Studio Session: Timepiece Artist Erik Ulfers

Jan 3, 2025 | phoenixmag.com | Robrt Pela

That future would include a successful career in theater and television set design (most notably the sets used on CNN news shows) and, more recently, a full-time foray into fine art. Ulfers works in two disparate media, making gouache-and-pencil portraits of fantastical flying creatures (a rooster crossed with what might be a sparrow; a griffin-like creature with a rat’s tail) and intricate clock-inspired assemblages he calls “timepieces.”“I’ve always drawn and painted,” Ulfers says.
Culture Club: Of Jellyfish and Little Libraries

Jan 3, 2025 | phoenixmag.com | Robrt Pela

Teryn Ashleigh has made a mixed-media jellyfish. “It combines all my creative hobbies,” she tells me about the jellyfish, which is titled “Pastime” and is one among 21 pieces in After Hours, an exhibition of artwork by staff members of Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts running through March 3. “I do acrylic painting, crochet and sculpting,” confides Ashleigh, who – when she’s not crocheting jellyfish – is the center’s accounts payable coordinator.
M.I.M.'s Guitar & Violin Exhibition to Feature 'Works of Art'

Nov 3, 2024 | phoenixmag.com | Robrt Pela

Apublicist sent me a media kit about Stradivarius and the Golden Age of Violins and Guitars, an exhibition of beautiful string instruments opening at the Musical Instrument Museum on November 8. The exhibition, the press release explained, is a collection of more than 70 violins, guitars and bows crafted by legendary instrument-makers from the 16th to the 19th centuries. It includes notable work by the iconic Antonio Stradivari. Not just musical instruments, but works of art. Well, I thought.
Studio Session with Jeanne Anne Baughman

Nov 2, 2024 | phoenixmag.com | Robrt Pela

“My family teases me because I’m always bent over, looking at the ground,” says Cave Creek ceramic artist Jeanne Anne Baughman. “I’m searching for pinecones and rocks to use in my work.”That work includes stunning ceramic totems that incorporate her found objects – driftwood and cactus spikes and rocks – into towering stacks. Her cactus-inspired pots and hyper-textured bowls are stamped with barnacles she applies one at a time using tools she’s made herself.