If there’s one thing Marana artist Joe Benedict loves to see, it is children playing and interacting with his artwork — especially at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. 

Benedict’s work isn’t small, nor is it delicate. He creates larger-than-life insects and animals of the desert. His latest installations? A yard-high bearded dragon with its own saddle that visitors have the artist’s full permission to sit on and rock. 

Benedict calls him a “dragon of hearts” because throughout the piece he’s hidden hearts, but his name is Jaffa.

The other is “Majestic,” a huge butterfly with wings that can flap. 

“I’m honored to get to be the artist who creates this for people to enjoy,” he said. “It’s so much fun.”

These sculptures are not just for kids, however.

“The biggest kick I get is seeing grandpa and junior seeing how fast they can go, spinning those things as hard and fast as they can go and just having so much fun,” Benedict added.

Using bicycle parts, a good deal of engineering know-how and a studio filled with fabricating tools, Benedict is all about making artwork accessible and fun with the result of making people happy. Then, when people are happy, they are better to themselves and better to others. It’s his way of making the world better.

“When you … interact with my art you are smiling. You’re having fun,” he said, “Simply put, it raises your vibrations and that’s my goal, to raise the vibration of everybody you touch.” 

His goal is to raise the vibration of everyone on earth.

“It’s happening,” his wife Mercedez said. “Honestly, it’s actually fun to watch it happen.” 

“Everything I build I put love into it,” he added. He prays over his work as well.

This is a somewhat new venture for the artist, begun only a few years ago. Benedict said it takes him about three months to complete one, the first being the hardest because he has to work out the machinery that makes the piece move. Even so, the next one is also hard to construct.

Currently four of Benedict’s works reside at the museum; Juniper the dragonfly and Mikael the Guardian of the Garden, a desert hawk with a hand-tuned bell. There’s another piece installed in the city, it’s in a garden created by the STEM Club at Sunnyside High School. This piece is a hummingbird, but you might not want it hovering over your flowers. 

“It’s 7-feet wingspan and he stands at just over 8 feet tall, and you walk up and you pump up and down with handlebars,” he said. “The wings are articulated like a hummingbird’s so they go back and forward.”

Next on his drafting board is Jaffa’s big brother, who will come in at 48 inches at the head, but as of yet Benedict does not know where this one is headed.

Each piece weighs between 750 and 1,000 pounds, so they’re not exactly easy to relocate. Still, Benedict said he designs them so they can be moved. New owners will still need a forklift, though. 

Don’t have one? Enjoy these mechanical wonders at the desert museum through the rest of the summer.