"You are here," a mural by Jason Bruner
Jason Bruner, religious studies professor | "You are here"
2026
Acrylic on canvas
"These six paintings depict a continuous visualization of the Salt River Valley using five different maps. The maps cover an area that, in contemporary street terms, moves from approximately 59th Avenue (Glendale) on the left to Gilbert Road (Mesa) on the right, and from Baseline Road on the bottom, to Thomas Road on the top. A 1922 map drawn by Omar Turney stands at either end. Then, starting from the left, there is a panel derived from a population density map, a hand-drawn street map of central Phoenix filled with memories, a heat map of east Phoenix (ASU’s Cool Region Webtool, 2025), and a topographical map depicting Tempe and Papago Park up to Scottsdale from 1952.
I based this work around maps because they can orient us in such different ways to a place, and places are never just one thing. While the maps are visually very different, it’s still possible to see elements of continuity between and among them. The most significant of these continuities is the Salt River, and one can also see how contemporary canals often followed Hohokam engineering. The roads, while mostly a grid, can be seen to occasionally follow topographical features, and where roads were built often depended upon planning and population projections from decades prior. Van Buren Road, which cuts through the middle of several of the panels, also shows the lingering effects of redlining, where the neighborhoods to the north of the road are noticeably cooler than those to the south, such as the Eastlake neighborhood, Sky Harbor Airport, and South Phoenix.
To live in the metro-Phoenix area today is to inherit what’s represented across these maps: the uniqueness of its geography, the marvel of making water available in a desert, the choices others made to settle, build, zone, and live here, and the effects those choices have had upon economics, health, animals, and transportation. These points of continuity might help us orient ourselves toward what this place is becoming."