The Giant Heads of Parkland Hills, Ancora Cafe Reopens, Ridgecrest Walk Saturday and More

Exit Stairs at Popejoy (Photo: Roland Penttila)

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The Giant Heads of Parkland Hills

Tim Read, neighborhood multimedia artist

by Jennifer Moglia Lucil

Read with Lady X. (Photo: Jennifer Lucil)

Walking the streets of Albuquerque often leads to art—side-street murals, unique fences, and repurposed cars. On my neighborhood streets, art makes an impact in the form of colossal, sculpted heads on the neighbor’s front lawn. I’m talking about our very own Parkland Hills’ neighbor, Tim Read, and his remarkable sculptures created from recycled metal that can be seen at the corner of Idlewilde and Southern Boulevard. Read is a working multimedia artist in his late seventies who takes inspiration from majestic landscapes to transform cast-off metals.

Stepping Out, also on display in the neighborhood. (Photo: Larissa Samson)

Read spent his childhood in Riverside, California, where he would take refuge from school in the work of his father, a WPA artist and art teacher who had materials galore in his home—wood, stone, paint. Read went on to earn his bachelor’s and master’s of arts degrees in sculpture at California State University at Long Beach, and gained eclectic experiences that invigorated his artistic “muscle,” such as working as a welder at a Mobil oil refinery in Torrance, California.