The Journey: Roy Purcell's Painted Rocks
Near Chloride, Arizona
About a mile and a half up the rough canyon road east of town, a jumble of enormous granite boulders blazes with color. This is The Journey, painted by the artist Roy Purcell in nineteen sixty-six. Purcell, born in Los Angeles in nineteen thirty-six and raised in rural Utah, had taken a break from his master of fine arts studies at Utah State University to work as a hard rock miner in these very mountains.
With the encouragement of local residents, he climbed onto the rocks and covered the stone with vivid images. He called the work The Journey, images from an inward search for self. The painted figures rise as much as thirty feet, spread across boulders that tower some seventy-five feet above the canyon floor.
Look closely and you find symbols drawn from many traditions, the yin and yang, a coiled serpent, the sun and the moon, and a nod to the Tennessee Mine where Purcell earned his wages. The murals launched his professional career and made him known across the Southwest. He returned to freshen the colors in later years, working with other artists to restore the paintings.
They remain free to visit, out in the open desert.
