My Favorite Place: DeGrazia's Gallery in the Sun, Tucson

I was five when my kindergarten teacher taught us about the great artists of our time. One that captured my imagination was Ettore “Ted” DeGrazia. When a visiting aunt gave a glowing review of one of my drawings I remarked, “It’s not as good as Ted DeGrazia.”

I didn’t think about his work in the years that followed until, after some time in California, my wife and I returned to Arizona to attend the graduate program at the University of Arizona’s College of Architecture.

We moved with our three children into a town home across the street from his Foothills studio. I didn’t notice that the “Gallery in the Sun” sign I passed each day was connected to the famous artist. It was my boys who discovered the magic of this place while exploring the desert near our home. One night at dinner my oldest son, who was seven at the time, told me about this cool “fort” they had found. A Saturday exploring DeGrazia’s Studio became a family event.

What I discovered there was beyond expectation. The textures, the colors, the whimsy, everything a building isn’t supposed to be, was all there. Unencumbered by the rules, this master artist had intuitively and vigorously incorporated raw material, use of light, forced perspective and scale in a unique way. To call it a mere building doesn’t seem quite right. It is a place in the desert, a retreat. I have returned there over the years to remind myself that the only limitation is our own imagination.

There are other places in Arizona like it such as Montezuma Castle, Arcosanti, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West. Gallery in the Sun is one that we call our own right here in Tucson. It stands as an example of the sense or desire within us to create a place in the world where we feel at home and can be inspired by our surroundings.