Since we were in Twentynine Palms, California because of our visit to Joshua Tree National Park, we decided to also see the sculptures at the Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Art Museum, about 20 kilometers from where we stayed.

• 

• 

Noah Purifoy, who referred to himself as an environmental sculptor, created artwork from scrap and waste materials.  Born in 1917, he worked as a high school industrial arts teacher and social worker before becoming an artist. Purifoy’s earliest serious artwork was fashioned out of charred debris from the 1965 Watts riots in California. And during the last 15 years of his life, he created assemblage sculptures on his 10 acres of the California desert floor. Purifoy specifically chose an outdoor desert setting for his works because he wanted to see how the extremes of weather and desert climate would affect his sculptures. He died at age 86. 

• 

• 

We had a fun time viewing and photographing Purifoy’s very creative, eclectic artwork, some of which brought back memories of items from Jerry and Susan’s childhoods, such as Grandma’s vacuum cleaner, television set, and metal-framed chairs.

• 

•