Visual Artist Collective

Natalia Naugle - Easter Submission

Alfonso Siroc - Easter Submission

For this piece, I wanted to visually combine the past to the present Easter. The graphical element of the dove holding the olive branch speaks to the greater narrative the peace and new life between God and man after the flood.  This new life is woven throughout the verse 1 Cor 15:55 and by using the dove, filled with easter eggs, it shows how this new life can get hidden by modern day Easter but will never lose it's power (shape remains).

Eugene Scott - Easter Submission

"O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”  - 1 Corinthians 15:55 

Few verses have convinced me more that often times the last chapter of a book is rarely the end of the story. Even on our best days, our humanity makes us shortsighted and incapable of seeing beyond what is immediately in front of us. A very recent example of that was the Great Recession, which hit Phoenix’s real estate market harder than nearly everywhere else in the country.

I daily walk past the alley of 44 Monroe, Arizona’s tallest residential building, and rarely is the view not obstructed by vehicles or people. One particular day offered a clear shot of ‘Her Secret Is Patience,’ a sculpture floating 145 feet above Civic Space Park just north of 44 Monroe. I attempted to capture the image from the street south of the apartment community, but failed. However, I ended up photographing something I found far more interesting – a bright light at the end of a tunnel-like structure.

Despite unprecedented interest when 44 Monroe was originally envisioned, when the condos opened in August 2009 towards the official end of the economic downturn, the project was only 5 percent occupied. The following month, 44 Monroe’s primary lender was taken over by the federal government and headed for a likely foreclosure. 

This story is not unique.  

Countless people banking on high-end development projects across the Valley several years ago saw their dreams and investments crumble before them leaving behind a pile of broken families, vanished fortunes and even one high-profile suicide.  

As someone who lost his own marriage and home during this time, I journeyed through this season not only as a spectating business reporter but as one who could empathize with many of those around me.

But not all deaths sting – at least not permanently.

While not a condominium project as originally envisioned, 44 Monroe has found success in the rental market currently enjoying an occupancy rate exceeding 90 percent, according to the Downtown Phoenix Partnership, an organization overseeing downtown development. The building is now home to numerous residents who previously experienced deaths in various areas of their lives that they once feared would permanently triumph over them.

And some of them are amazingly experiencing life with a greater vitality than ever before.