Thanks to the recent revival of Frank Herbert’s Dune novels, following two eponymous blockbuster movies, the desert is (culturally) hot again. The vast expanses of arid wilderness – with seemingly endless skies, highly adapted flora and fauna, an array of colours, and an eerie quiet – have long been an inspiration for American artists, from Maynard Dixon to Georgia O'Keeffe. And for Dallas-born, California-based sculptor Jonathan Cross, all of these attributes make the desert the perfect place to work, despite the searing temperatures.
'I realised that the Southwest is where my heart is,' he tells Wallpaper*. 'It's got a good combination of big blue skies with clouds… mountains, all the rocks and cacti that I love. And as strange as it may sound like, the desert seems like a very clean place to me.'
