A DESERT GALLERY CHANGES WITH TIME
Then & Now
Outdoor art lives in weather, sunlight, changing businesses, and changing buildings. Some Oasis murals remain. Some were repainted or replaced. Others survive only in photographs, prints, brochures, and memory.
REMOVED
M01 · Bill & Frances Keys
The first mural was lost when its building was removed. Its story returned in a new form with M25, Keys’ Desert Queen Ranch, in 2013.
REPLACED
M04 → M21
Neighbors in Nature I faded beyond repair in the desert sun. Larry and Nancy Cherry Eifert returned in 2006 to paint Neighbors in Nature II.
REPAINTED
M05 · Desert Storm
Chuck Caplinger’s 1995 Desert Storm Homecoming & Victory Parade was repainted in 2021 with Holgie Caplinger and David Greene assisting.
REMOVED
M14 · Desert Wildlife
Damaged by harsh desert sun and wind, the 1999 Chuck Caplinger mural was removed in 2007.
The next layer: photographs
This page is designed to become a visual comparison archive. Historic photographs will sit beside current views so visitors can see not only the art, but how the streets and buildings around it changed.
HOW TO READ THIS PAGE
Change is part of the history
A removed mural is not a missing chapter. Its photographs, prints, dedication records, artist history, and the memories attached to the wall remain part of the collection. Restorations and replacements are documented as new chapters rather than treated as though nothing changed.
As photographs are recovered, comparisons will identify the approximate date and source whenever possible so an old image is never accidentally presented as the mural’s current condition.
The goal is not to freeze the murals in time. It is to show what time did to them.