Art | - Part 5

Know the Origin of the Highway 89 Screamers?

February 2, 2010 By SamLowe 3 Comments

Under normal circumstances, I can readily find the origins of weird things in Arizona, but there’s one north of Flagstaff that puzzles me. No one seems to know anything about what it is, why it’s there and who put it there. It is three weathered tree trunks (they look like junipers) standing next to each other, and someone painted strange faces on them. The images on the two smaller trunks are badly faded, but the face on the tallest one is still in relatively good shape. It resembles “The Scream,” the famous expressionist painting by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch in 1893.

Filed Under: Art, Northern Arizona, Odd Observations Tagged With: art, landmarks

Giant Crosses Watch Over Cochise County

January 11, 2010 By SamLowe 2 Comments

Two huge Celtic crosses keep silent watch over the landscape of Cochise County. One graces the Holy Trinity Monastery, a Benedictine community just south of St. David. The second is on a hillside overlooking Our Lady of the Sierras Shrine near Hereford. Both tower more than 75 feet over their surroundings, and both are the result of a journey Pat and Gerry Chouinard made to a shrine in Medjugorje, in what was then Yugoslavia. When they retired in 1995, the couple decided to build a similar shrine on their property near Hereford.

Filed Under: Art, Southern Arizona Tagged With: art, hereford, landmarks

Courthouse Diversity in Tucson

December 17, 2009 By SamLowe Leave a Comment

The Pima County Courthouse has been a Tucson landmark for eight decades, but it took a long time for the community to accept it because of a lingering controversy over the colors and style. But over the years, the Spanish Colonial Revival structure has become became a city icon.

The building, designed by Roy W. Place and built by Herbert Brown, is the third courthouse to occupy the site.

Filed Under: Art, Dose of History, Southern Arizona Tagged With: art, history, landmarks, tucson

A Unique Shrine of Concrete and Rocks in Yarnell

December 2, 2009 By SamLowe 2 Comments

Nobody can say for sure if any miracles have actually happened at the Shrine of St. Joseph in Yarnell, but the story behind its creation is almost a miracle itself. It was built by a dishwasher on a site unsuitable for any kind of construction, and under the supervision of a family that had to invent a new type of concrete to make it happen.

Filed Under: Art, Small Town Scene Tagged With: art, yarnell

Giant Skull in Yavapai County

October 30, 2009 By SamLowe 3 Comments

Skulls are usually hidden away where they’re hard to find, but the Giant Skull of Date Creek is right out in the open, and it’s been in the exact spot for more than 100 years. The skull is actually a huge boulder painted white with black eyes, nose and a black toothy mouth so it looks like a real skull, even to those who are “imaginationally” challenged. Like many pieces of rock art, the origins are a bit hard to trace, but local legend says it was the work of some railroad workers who had extra paint and extra time on their hands.

Filed Under: Art, Dose of History Tagged With: art, landmarks, storytelling