A rare angel fountain and March Hare mural

The summer monsoon has arrived in Southern Arizona and so far the city of Tucson has had less than normal rainfall, although nearby areas like Green Valley, Nogales and Sierra Vista have experienced deluges. Finally on Saturday it rained most of the day here in the city so I set out to take a few photos of the Santa Cruz River where the Trashy Divas cleaned up the riverbed last March.

Well, if you’ve ever seen rushing brown water in a river, you’ve seen the Santa Cruz in flood. No need to post new pictures. So in an attempt to make the drive down to Menlo Park worth the time, I stopped at the Mercado San Agustin. Nothing much new to see there either. A few people having lunch, that’s all. The food looked good.

Discovering a rare fountain

As I was leaving I spied a small plaza across Congress Street at El Rio Children’s Health Center with a charming tile fountain and large March Hare mural behind it.

Fountains, I suddenly realized, are a rarity in Tucson. Murals are everywhere. Sculptures as public art are fairly common, too. However, I can’t remember seeing another fountain, but maybe there are one or two somewhere in the city. Although — maybe not — because Tucson is very conservative with water usage because our water flows across the desert in canals for hundreds of miles to the city from the Colorado River. Water guzzling lawns are rarities, too. This fountain, however, was not bubbling with long distance water. In the basin of the fountain there was about a inch of water, probably from Saturday’s rainfall, and a scattering a pennies.

Angels, animals and a rainbow

This fountain seems to have a theme of angels of several kinds. There are the three abstract angels in niches at the center. The tiles that wrap around them represent a rainbow with the words “Reach for a rainbow and realize a dream”.

Surrounding the rainbow in a tiled blue sky are animals with wings — animal angels?–including a pair of snakes with brown wings, flying big horn sheep with white ones and what appears to be a winged skunk with a black and white striped tail. One reader has suggested that the flying animals are “a homage to dead animals, animals that have crossed the rainbow bridge…” That sounds quite likely to me.  

Then there is the March Hare figure on the wall — carrying a toothbrush! Definitely a fun image for a children’s health clinic. And it made the drive to Menlo Park worthwhile.

If anyone knows the artists who created the fountain or mural please let me know.