Photo: Gloria Knott, This Is Tucson Recently a new mural went up in Tucson. The mural is titled “Desert Colossus,” and it’s the tallest mural in the state of Arizona, at 153 feet tall. The artist is Joe Pagac.
To learn more about this mural, go to This Is Tucson:
https://thisistucson.com/tucsonlife/article_d85bbf92-fb73-11ef-abe2-af48f43bf646.html
Another good source of info about this mural and many others in Tucson is Tucson Murals Blogspot:
https://tucsonmurals.blogspot.com/
To learn more about this mural, go to This Is Tucson:
https://thisistucson.com/tucsonlife/article_d85bbf92-fb73-11ef-abe2-af48f43bf646.html
Another good source of info about this mural and many others in Tucson is Tucson Murals Blogspot:
https://tucsonmurals.blogspot.com/
What got my attention was a post on Instagram about Pagac’s saguaro mural. It starts with “It's not just the tallest cactus, it's a symbol of white male supremecy (spelling) and if you need that explained to you, you're part of the problem.”
Oh, please. This had me rolling my eyes. So I decided that this Second Wave feminist (that would be me) will do the “explaining" here.
First of all, an artwork that is shaped as tall and hard doesn’t necessary mean the artist is referring to an erect male penis, and by extension, “white male supremacy.”
The Instagrammer makes the argument that because of numerous social problems we face these days, artists should be painting murals that address what s/he considers real problems, problems that affect people, and artists shouldn’t be wasting time painting a desert plant, even if it’s a beloved icon.
Instagrammer goes on to say, “If your "art" isn't speaking up for people (especially in this political climate), you're painting for yourself not for the rest of us (but we still have to see it); that's like masterbating (spelling) in public.”
So this person thinks that s/he gets to define: 1) what the most important social problems are, 2) that these problems should focus on people (such as those migrants dying in the desert), and 3) if you don’t address those problems in your art, you’re an artist who is wasting our time...and worse, metaphorically forcing us to watch you pleasure yourself. Oh please (again).
We Second Wave feminists worked on issues such as reproductive rights (remember Rowe v. Wade?), employment opportunities for women, and problems like sexual assault and domestic abuse. Public murals were not usually on our agenda, nor did we typically demand that artists take up our cause.
Worse, this criticism of Pagac’s mural goes against what I personally consider important. This is, we artists should be supporting each other, not nitpicking and redefining what other artists do. It’s not Instagrammer’s place to impose his/her political values on the work of any artist. I hear abstract expressionist Helen Frankenthaler and Georgia O’Keeffe with her seductive paintings of flowers whispering in my ear. What about Frida Kahlo? She liked to paint herself again and again. Would they have passed Instagrammer’s demands on what is acceptable and “politically correct” art?
Although I agree with the Instagrammer that migrants dying in the desert is a tragedy, and yes, maybe we do need a black person in our mural every now and then, we have Tucsonans already addressing these issues. Humane Borders (https://www.humaneborders.org/) takes water out into the desert for those traveling migrants, which I think is more important than a mural. And we can go to downtown Tucson anytime and visit the Blue Lotus Artists’ Collective https://downtowntucson.org/go/blue-lotus-artists-collective.
I am of the opinion that it should be left up to the artist/muralist to decide which subject s/he wants to take on in his/her art. Instagrammer is not the arbiter of what is acceptable art. And equating the saguaro with male supremacy is a real stretch.
Oh, please. This had me rolling my eyes. So I decided that this Second Wave feminist (that would be me) will do the “explaining" here.
First of all, an artwork that is shaped as tall and hard doesn’t necessary mean the artist is referring to an erect male penis, and by extension, “white male supremacy.”
The Instagrammer makes the argument that because of numerous social problems we face these days, artists should be painting murals that address what s/he considers real problems, problems that affect people, and artists shouldn’t be wasting time painting a desert plant, even if it’s a beloved icon.
Instagrammer goes on to say, “If your "art" isn't speaking up for people (especially in this political climate), you're painting for yourself not for the rest of us (but we still have to see it); that's like masterbating (spelling) in public.”
So this person thinks that s/he gets to define: 1) what the most important social problems are, 2) that these problems should focus on people (such as those migrants dying in the desert), and 3) if you don’t address those problems in your art, you’re an artist who is wasting our time...and worse, metaphorically forcing us to watch you pleasure yourself. Oh please (again).
We Second Wave feminists worked on issues such as reproductive rights (remember Rowe v. Wade?), employment opportunities for women, and problems like sexual assault and domestic abuse. Public murals were not usually on our agenda, nor did we typically demand that artists take up our cause.
Worse, this criticism of Pagac’s mural goes against what I personally consider important. This is, we artists should be supporting each other, not nitpicking and redefining what other artists do. It’s not Instagrammer’s place to impose his/her political values on the work of any artist. I hear abstract expressionist Helen Frankenthaler and Georgia O’Keeffe with her seductive paintings of flowers whispering in my ear. What about Frida Kahlo? She liked to paint herself again and again. Would they have passed Instagrammer’s demands on what is acceptable and “politically correct” art?
Although I agree with the Instagrammer that migrants dying in the desert is a tragedy, and yes, maybe we do need a black person in our mural every now and then, we have Tucsonans already addressing these issues. Humane Borders (https://www.humaneborders.org/) takes water out into the desert for those traveling migrants, which I think is more important than a mural. And we can go to downtown Tucson anytime and visit the Blue Lotus Artists’ Collective https://downtowntucson.org/go/blue-lotus-artists-collective.
I am of the opinion that it should be left up to the artist/muralist to decide which subject s/he wants to take on in his/her art. Instagrammer is not the arbiter of what is acceptable art. And equating the saguaro with male supremacy is a real stretch.
After a tornado... Most important, though, is that the Instagrammer seems to have totally missed the real value of this saguaro mural.
Here’s what Joe Pagac said about his mural:
“I love to bring some of the Sonoran Desert that surrounds the city into the heart of it,” Pagac said. “I love painting nature larger than life so people can really appreciate it, and hopefully it inspires people to get out and hike in it a bit.”
Look at it this way. Pagac is thinking about the value of the natural world. Currently, we’re experiencing a deepening climate crisis. We’re not only getting hotter, we in the U.S. are experiencing weather extremes such as drought-caused fires, as well as intense and numerous tornadoes and hurricanes that lead to death and destruction. And it’s getting worse by the minute. Humans are severely affected, as are all other living beings. Also, some botanists think that the saguaro won’t survive the climate crisis, unless it can move as a species to higher, cooler altitudes, which it is slowly doing now. What about us humans? Where will we go?
On top of that, the get-rich-quick gang in the White House claims that this isn’t happening, that the climate crisis is a myth, and fossil fuels don’t have anything to do with it. Trumps’ Environmental Protection Agency announced recently that it plans to scale back or eliminate “rules limiting harmful air pollution from cars and power plants; restrictions on the emission of mercury, a neurotoxin; and clean water protections for rivers and streams." The Guardian, March 19, 2025.
The argument could be made, therefore, that Pagac’s mural is deeply important to the existential climate crisis that we all face. If people do appreciate his mural, and if the mural inspires them to get out into the desert where they begin to love and want to protect it, then he has provided us with a beautiful mural and a good message.
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