If you’re a lover of art, you might want to head up to Oro Valley for an exhibit happening until early May— the Art in Oro Valley Gallery Exhibition .
The gallery is on display at the Roche Tissue Diagnostics campus and is in collaboration with the Southern Arizona Arts and Cultural Alliance to celebrate Oro Valley’s upcoming 50th birthday.
“I’ve just been blown away. It feels like a start. It feels like at least a little hand in the art world,” said Eric Magnuson, one of the featured artists in the exhibit.
Magnuson says he has been an artist since childhood, primarily creating colorful works of art out of colored pencils. But when he applied for this year’s exhibition, he chose to showcase a form of art he learned after graduating from welding school—3-D pieces made entirely from scrap metal.
“Now that I have the skills to turn trash into art, I want to use them. Even if it’s just something small,” he said. “It’s a way for me to give back and use skills I’ve developed to do something for more than just me.”