"arizona handshake" • installed november 2008 • phoenix convention center
artist: stephen farley • tilography™ by richard young and tom galloway
The City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture chose artist Stephen Farley in 2005 to use Tilography to create ten 3'x10' murals on a wall near 5th Street and Adams as part of the expansion of the Phoenix Convention Center.
Farley photographed 20 diverse people shaking hands at ten different locations all over Arizona. A Kindergarten teacher shakes the hand of a Kindergartner. The Monsignor of Yuma shakes hands with a farmworker. A Hopi shakes hands with a Navajo. A copper miner shakes hands with a mining company vice president.
Handshakes express business, welcome, unity, and warmth. These handshakes, so varied in background and nature, represent the grand variety that is Arizona today. People who encounter the work can find at least one hand that could be theirs.
