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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Forty-Seven: How using words in pictures can expand meaning > Welcome to Sedona, Oak Creek Canyon, Arizona, 2009
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15-NOV-2009

Welcome to Sedona, Oak Creek Canyon, Arizona, 2009

The words, and the figure holding them, are the subject of this image. A cartoonish, otherworldly figure holding a simple sign underneath the Midgely Bridge on the outskirts of Sedona tells us that we are in the best place on earth. To even see this sign, one must climb down a step incline and view the foundations of the bridge itself. Perhaps it is our reward for undertaking such an effort. It is a masterful piece of graffiti. The strange figure, with exclamation points for eyes, represents an impression of Sedona that many of its spiritually oriented residents would probably agree with.

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Phil Douglis01-Dec-2009 18:59
Good point, Iris. Perhaps the artist hid the message because if he had placed in full public view, it probably would have been gone by now. Yet it manages to survive, and becomes in doing so, a more private and less public experience.
Iris Maybloom (irislm)01-Dec-2009 17:58
The message may be hidden on the foundation of the bridge out of view of the average onlooker. Given the location, the artist might have been trying to keep this message a secret, but, sadly, the secret got out.
Phil Douglis28-Nov-2009 02:49
That's what I thought of as well, Rose -- but I doubt if space aliens could afford the Sedona life style.
sunlightpix28-Nov-2009 01:49
How whimsical!
What if space aliens left this mark?
Phil Douglis26-Nov-2009 00:08
That would make a wonderful T-shirt, Tim. Just take out the words and hang a camera in its place, and the concept becomes yours. All of us who bring our passion to making images truly have exclamation points dancing in our eyes, and atoms, representing ideas, swirling around in our minds.
Tim May26-Nov-2009 00:04
Taking out the "Best Place on Earth" words I want this as a tee shirt to represent photography - It seems as if it represents how we view this world as photographers, with our minds as atoms and ours eyes as exclamation points.
Phil Douglis24-Nov-2009 17:56
Thanks, Claudia, for seeing the role of the bush here -- life is indeed a universal struggle. Even the "best place on earth" is not immune from its travails.
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