There’s a new 12-foot-long metal dragon in St. George.
Its eyes are made from kitchen utensils. Its belly, two stop signs. The scales that cover its wings, horns and everywhere else come from the Salt Lake City police station’s evidence room.
“All those license plates you see on that dragon have been confiscated by the police,” Utah County artist Deveren B. Farley said. “Every five to six months, they'll call me up and say, ‘Hey, Deveren, we got another load for you.’”
He recently installed this larger-than-life sculpture in Town Square Park as part of the annual Art Around the Corner event. It’s an outdoor gallery that features dozens of pieces around St. George starting April 12.
The idea is to support Utah creators by marketing their work, while bringing art to the masses.
“Public art is so important,” Art Around the Corner Foundation Chair Heather Atkin said. “It lets people who maybe wouldn't have access to fine art have that access on a daily basis.”
This year’s event includes 38 pieces by artists from across Utah and as far away as Louisiana and British Columbia. The creators get a small stipend to lend the pieces to the city for one year, and the community gets to enjoy the thought-provoking view.
“It's a way for people not only to interact differently with the world, but see the world through a different perspective,” Atkin said.
Once that year is up, the art hits the open market — larger pieces on the Art Around the Corner website list from $7,500 to $65,000 — and a new crop comes in.
Farley’s sculpture, titled Rust in Peace, depicts a mythical beast resting on a rock made of steel plates. Its metal structure doesn’t come apart, so after building it at his homebase in Lindon, he loaded it onto a trailer and drove it down I-15 in all its glory.
“Cars speed by me, and then all of a sudden you can see them hit their brakes and just go real slow,” he said as he recalled the traveling spectacle. “And all of them have their cameras out.”
It’s not the first metallic monster Farley has released on the streets of southwest Utah. Three years ago, another giant dragon sculpture — similarly covered with Utah car tags — occupied a St. George roundabout as part of a previous Art Around the Corner event.
The dragons don’t have a connection to the medieval legend of a soldier named St. George who slayed such mythical beasts. Instead, both originated from the affinity Farley’s dad had for the creatures. That sparked the first pieces he made in high school metal shop class.
Once he began pursuing art professionally, however, Farley shied away from making dragons. He worried customers wouldn’t be interested. Then, after his father died, he decided to make the piece that ended up in the roundabout. He named it Dad in memoriam.
After its year-long stint in St. George, Bountiful purchased the sculpture and moved it north. Farley heard plenty of complaints from residents when it left, so he said it feels good to bring a similar piece back to the city.
“I love that they were willing to let me bring another dragon,” he said. “Hopefully some kids can take some inspiration from it, and it'll bring joy and inspire others with their imagination. … Dragons are just all about your imagination.”
Being part of the St. George art event has inspired Farley, too.
This is his 17th year showing sculptures, and the experience led him to help start a similar event in Daybreak, known as the Art Stroll. For Utah artists trying to showcase their work and Utah cities looking to beautify their streetscapes, he said it’s a win-win.
“They get to try out all these pieces and see what the people in their town like before they commit to buying such an expensive piece.”
