By Dale O’Dell

Since the invention of organized society, humans have been decorating their living and working spaces. Murals, sculptures and rock art are primary types of public outdoor art.  Mural-making dates to Upper Paleolithic times (estimated to be as much as 50,000 years old). Humanity seems compelled to make art.

In Prescott, as well as the rest of the Southwest U.S., our landscape is dotted with Native American petroglyphs and pictographs (rock art), some of which are thousands of years old. Contemporary outdoor art, however, is bigger, bolder, brighter, urban and easier to find. The popularity of large-scale murals in the Western world began in the nineteenth century with ready-made paint. Although artists used paint as long as 30,000 years ago, it wasn’t until 1867 that D.R. Averill patented the first prepared or “ready mixed” paints in the U.S..