While driving down Park Avenue I noticed the cutest two story beauty shop up a hill.
I drove up it and parked my car under a tree. The building was abandoned. The front door was nailed shut. However, there was easy access to the inside of the building through one of the broken windows. Too much broken glass so I didn’t even consider going in. I wouldn’t of any way because the owner had the front door nailed shut. While doing this art project, I choose not to trespass where I wasn’t welcome. A door nailed shut was a message loud and clear enough for me - stay out.
I placed, photographed and documented #55 on an inside windowsill. It was easy to do since most of the window was gone. I could see old chairs, designed for styling hair, and equipped with built-in ash trays. Lots of mirrors on the walls - broken and otherwise.
An odd piece of equipment or two - however, I was unable to figure out what was the purpose they once served.
After I walked back to my car, I noticed a horse skull in the dirt next to one of the tires. It was caked with mud and had been there for some time. I searched the ground around the car, however, there were no more bones. It needed a home. Usually, I don’t make a practice of taking anything from the sites where my art pieces are placed. I respect each of the places and think it should be left undisturbed. However, I thought that this skull would come in handy in another art project.
It was wrapped up in a plastic tarp that I always carry around with me in the trunk of my car. The tarp was placed back in the trunk with the skull inside. I closed the trunk, got back into my car and headed back to the hospital in Safford.
I wondered how many women frequented this beauty shop back in the day. Did it move to a better location or just close down all together? Surely more than one beauty shop could serve the women of Clifton when this area was thriving because of the copper mine. Did they have separate beauty shops for women of color? Did a woman have to go to a particular beauty shop if she was Mexican, Native American or African-American?
The world of beauty - universal but separate. No matter, almost every woman and/or man is united by the desire to look like the advertised glamourous images on the sleek, glossy pages of a magazine. Most of us would love to look - picture perfect and nicely packaged which will hopefully make us - happy?
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