The Spiral Art Garden

Our BIG DREAM is to find a place where we can spend the rest of our lives building a sculptural art environment that will also be a school for people  interested in learning mosaic, concrete sculpture, steel sculpture, and assemblage art. With our combined artistic and construction skills we are itching to create something grand and whimsical. We have long been excited about art environments. For over 20 years we have been dreaming. learning, and practicing skills that will help us build a wondrous and unusual environment that, eventually, should be open to the community for its use and enjoyment. At some point we hope it will be spectacular enough to become a public attraction.  Now it's time to find a place and start building. Maybe you can help.

There is something in the psyche of humanity that is attracted to the idea of stumbling across a magical fantasy world in a wild place. That is what we want to create. We are looking for a semi-remote location that, when people come across it, will surprise them in awe and wonderment. Once we find the location, the big fun on building a fantastic art environment can begin.

We are looking for a parcel of land, at least 5-acres. We don't need to own the land. We are not opposed to owning land but, if we were to spend our money on buying land, we would not have the money to build anything at all. If you have a large parcel of land and would like to see an unusual project happen on a small part of it, we would love to make it happen. We prefer a location in the Central Arizona highlands since that is where all of our connections are. Someplace not too high, not too low, with trees and water and natural beauty.

This is a long-term project. We want to spend the rest of our lives building it. This means 20 years or more. We plan to utilize our skills and experience with steel, concrete, and mosaic as well as carpentry. We hope to use recycled, repurposed, and salvaged materials as much as possible, including natural materials found on site or nearby.  Our design and planning will be flexible to take advantage of the serendipity of creative salvage opportunities.

If you are interested, contact us. We should meet several times so we can get to know each other before committing. We are open to discussing a variety of arrangements including caretaking or some other kind of exchange in return for long-term use of a part of your land.

ABOUT US

We are Royce Carlson and Juanita Hull-Carlson. We are both experienced and successful sculptors with Juanita working in concrete and mosaic and Royce sculpting with steel. Together we have the vision, skills, capacity, and burning desire to produce a large-scale sculptural environment.

Royce Carlson was born in 1953. He was raised in Southern California and moved to Prescott Arizona in 1991. He has been an artist for 30 years and made his living as a steel sculptor since 2000.  He owns and runs Cosmic Steel - a business that makes steel sculptures and architectural things like gates and railings. He is known in the Southwest U.S. for his wind-powered kinetic sculptures. He works with found steel objects, new steel, and other materials. He has been doing this for over 10 years in Prescott, AZ.

At left is a picture of a 20-foot-tall wind sculpture he made in 2004 called COSMOS. This sculpture was recently rented by Disney Pictures for an upcoming movie called The Surrogates, starring Bruce Willis. The movie is scheduled for release in September of 2009.

Royce has done dozens of residential commissions for gates, railings and other architectural details. He has also done some commercial projects including decorative steel work in the landscaping of the Yavapai Regional Medical Center in Prescott Valley, AZ

There's more info on Royce's artistic background in his Artist's Bio/Statement. Below is a photo of a garden gate Royce made with found steel objects.

Juanita Hull-Carlson was born in 1955, and was raised in western Michigan.  After a bachelor's degree in Ceramics and Art Ed. she taught art for 10 years, mostly in Michigan, Norway and Portugal.  Then after a Master's degree in Illustration from the Savannah College of Art and Design she moved west and met Royce.  Currently, her art forms are cement sculpture and found object mosaic.  Often these media are taught during Artist in Residencies, sponsored by the Arizona Commission on the Arts. The two primary focus points are building community and raising environmental awareness while making public art.  She is also working on a children's book about environmental activism.  The illustrations are hand colored, copper plate etchings. At right is a mosaic raindrop made for a park in the city of Chandler, AZ  See Nita's resume

The photo below is Nita's latest project - a mosaic wall on the roof deck of The Raven Cafe, in Prescott, AZ

Our other interests and activities:

Art Cars - We both love art cars and have created several. We even promoted an art car event in Prescott, AZ for a few years called Art On Wheels.

Burning Man Adventures - We have been going to Burning Man since 1999. Over the years we have brought three different art cars, built a couple of playa art pieces, organized a theme camp, and participated in various volunteer capacities. On our Burning Man pages you can see photos from all the years we attended.

 

Visit a blog of our art and creativity adventures
Adventures in the Zone