Renowned Arizona artist Ed Mell may have passed away last year, but his view of the Southwest lives on in Old Town Scottsdale.
This sculpture, titled “Jack Knife” and modeled after Scottsdale’s city seal, was his first large scale sculpture.
Although better known for his paintings, Mell was obviously also incredible at sculpture. No matter what medium he worked in, his modernist takes on the iconography of the Southwest are unmistakable and second-to-none.
From sharp, angular sandstone cliffs and thunder clouds to delicate, elegant desert wildflowers to bucking broncos and riders hanging on for dear life, his respect for the beauty and wildness of the Southwest was ever present in his presentations.
When I was tasked with photographing Old Town for the book Arizona: A Photographic Journey, Jack Knife was my first stop. And for my money, it’s the icon of “The West’s Most Western Town.”
If you wish to see Mell’s magnum opus for yourself, it sits at the corner of East Main Street and North Marshall Way.
That’s it for today’s Daily Dose…have a happy hump day!
-Jake
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