Along Sunrise Drive

Today's Cactus Monday post features some of the public art on Sunrise Drive between Swan Road and Craycroft Road. The sculptures and wall plaques are part of a road widening project completed a couple of years ago. The plan is to continue the road improvements all the way east to Sabino Canyon Road.
All of the steel and ceramic agave plants by Santa Theresa Tileworks are unique. The succulents are in various stages of bloom and the yellow and blue sunrise design tiles are all different.
A cell tower saguaro sits on a hill along Sunrise Drive. It's hard to tell that the rocky canyon wall below and blooming agave are also simulated.
This blooming agave sculpture is about twenty feet tall. It looks as if it just sprouted up among the natural gray Agave americanas.
The ceramic blossoms are a bright greenish yellow color. They resemble the natural ones I saw in bloom at Sabino Canyon the other day.

Each post on this wall is adorned with an agave silhouette plaque.
The plaques look similar but each one is a little different than the others.
It looks as though this rusted rebar ocotillo just sprung out of the cliff wall pocket.
I thought the green saguaro on this cyclist's shirt fitted in with the Cactus Monday theme, so I couldn't resist including it here.
And finally, here's a real live saguaro by Sunrise Drive Elementary School. A Gila woodpecker was busy investigating the holes.
The road work and art installations are so in harmony with the natural desert, that I hadn't paid much attention to them before. But since walking along Sunrise Drive, and taking these pictures, I've been noticing and appreciating art along other roads in the area.

Thanks to Teri's Cactus Monday flickr group, I've been discovering cactus everywhere. Yes, I do happen to live in "cactus country" but it's easy to take things for granted that you're surrounded by.

For more Cactus Monday posts, mosey on over to Teri's Painted Daisies.

New: I recently learned about a blog called Touch the wind... Warren finds all sorts of interesting subjects around Tucson and beyond, and his photos are fantastic. Check out his blog here.