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Laurie Lundquist

Watering the Desert

Laurie Lundquist’s Arizona Canal path project, Watering the Desert, was developed in collaboration with graphic designer Marie Jones and historian Nancy Dallett. Starting with several walks along the stretch of canal between Goldwater Boulevard and 60th Street, the three observed the canal and discussed the vision and tenacity required to make the dream of water in the desert come to life. They sifted through dozens of historic photographs to find images that would speak to the dreams and audacious spirit that motivated the building of the Arizona Canal.

Artwork for Watering the Desert is integrated into four separate art benches along the Arizona Canal path. Images and text were sandblasted, stained, and sealed onto the surface of the cast-in-place concrete bench walls. The text was distilled down to short phrases intended to pique the interest of passersby:

60th Street bench
“Imagine Watering the Desert / Visions of Paradise”

64th Street
“Water at Work / Potential Energy /Upstream-Downstream”

68th street West
“Visions of Power / Imagine Watering the Desert”

Lafayette Park
“Lafayette Park / Volume and Void”

project
details

Location6745 E Lafayette Blvd, Scottsdale, AZ 85251, USA

ArtistLaurie Lundquist

DatesCompleted 2013

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