There is a small possibility that I might be Joe Tylers biggest fan... although you may not know this name if you are from the valley you have seen his work... he makes these fantastical metal sculptures of leaves and vines that embrace and enhance such mundane objects as bus-stops, muncipal gazebos, monuments, and cool stuff like that. Steve and I went to meet him. It was amazing... he has a quiet energy about him that almost, just almost, makes you miss the inquisitive, little boy shining out of the blue, blue eyes. Those eyes are just a typical 8 year old... looking at the world with wonder and wanting to play with metal and fire. A wonderful spirit is what drives the creation of these wonderful sculptures.

Anyway... seeing this screen by chance out on Shea heading toward Fountain Hills, I decided once and for all who had this magical touch with metal. After lots of phone calls and searching on the internet I finally ran him down... and he said we could come and see his work....

Driving there was awesome... and finally when we found his driveway I was so excited I could barely sit in the car...

Steve got really animated when he recognized the century plants we have seen at various places through the valley, too....

... and the neatest driveway led back to metal heaven....

Look at all these toys... I want to play, too....

Here are some lizards... I don't want to see lizards... I want to see trees....

Oh but look at this... I have totally embarrassed myself within 2 minutes of arriving by saying "wow, constantly...

Here's an amazing tree welded onto a boulder... I don't know if it's welded or not, but it sort of wraps all around the boulder and is very oriental... The Joe Tyler told us he had designed a huge tree in Japan made of metal and stained glass and one with gold and silver leaves... I haven't seen a picture of them, but I'm anxious too !

Here is the model for one of my favorite sculptures....

...and I know this is a teeny, tiny pictures but here's what it looks like in real life... really, really cool.....

Here is Joy Tyler looking dazed from hearing "wow" too many times... but he was polite about the whole thing.

More models... look at the one on the left... you will see a picture of it big pretty soon...

These are cool bus stops... I want one... I admit no buses stop at my house but that is totally irrelevant... on ocassion desire has no logic...

Another "wow" like tree...

Let me see some more cool metal stuff... click here for page two !