Artist: Lucy Dickens
Title: Safe Within the Giant
Medium: oils
Dimensions: 36"h x 30"w
"Thinking about the Sonoran Desert and Arizona, visions of the iconic Saguaro cacti easily come to mind. These unique beauties are extremely slow growing as it can take ten years to grow two inches. They may not receive their first arms until seventy-five years old. The largest, like this behemoth, can reach fifty feet tall and over a hundred and fifty years old as they climb higher and higher into the sky, towering over the desert floor.
I imagine a sentinel, or guardian, as I gaze up these thorny spines and massive arms. Saguaros offer protection to several different wildlife species including the ferruginous pygmy-owl, a rust-colored raptor with keen eyes. This tiny beauty, at only 3 ounces, can take down prey twice its size. She then returns to the safety of her home within her giant protector. " Lucy Dickens