dennis avery is a very rich man. paper labels have "been beddy beddy good to him". but unlike a lot of greedy and narrow-minded millionares out there- dennis has chosen to put some of his spoils back into the land he loves. he's selfishly doing this with informative and historical beautification- not squandering his acreage to unsightly and damaging development. to his neighbors here in the borrego valley, dennis is one cool dude.

i had heard of these unique prehistoric sculptures situated randomly on plots of the avery holdings throughout the borrego valley, and decided last week to head out "in search of dinosaurs". as a kid i was a dinosaur nut...what red-blooded 6 year old wasnt back in the 50's? it was as natural as his treasured wally moon baseball card or his first 99¢ revelle model airplane kit (my favorite was the messerschmit me 262). and i recall the excitement every year when we would stop at the
prehistoric gardens up on old hwy 101 near the trees of mystery redwoods in northern california. so it was a real deja vu when over the rise, way up on the north reaches of borrego springs road i spied my first two prehistoric gomphotheres. these relatives of our modern day elephants roamed this very valley 7 million years ago. but enough with the fancy science talk, this site leans more towards the fine arts (that and tits, ass and cars) and id like to expound on the visceral beauty of these solitary monoliths. fancy bigass words for me huh?

from the san diego union-tribune:
"Made of waffle-sized pieces of shaped steel, the sculptures weigh between 800 and 1,000 pounds each and should be able to withstand the harsh winds that sweep through the valley. “It's just basic rusting steel that gives it a very nice patina (resembling) hide,” Avery said. “It looks like hide. In a year it will be even more so because it will rust over.” Artist Ricardo Braceda created life-like details on the sculptures, like the strands of metal on the tails and craftsmanship on the trunks.
"It takes weeks to do it. With time you come up with something good," Braceda said. He's thrilled people like his artwork.
"If people enjoy it, if people like my art it makes my day, that's all I want," he said.
Each sculpture begins with a frame, then Ricardo finds the right piece of metal. The pieces are fitted together like a jigsaw puzzle. More sculptures will be added to the menagerie. Avery says this is just the beginning."

i myself find personal satisfaction in the fact that if this was attempted anywhere else in california, without a surrounding barbed wire fence, these pieces would have been covered with graffitti on the first night...

rumor is they have just erected more somewhere out there...to be continued.