Winter Gateway 2022

David Sowders/Copper Corridor
A sample of the ceramic tile works created by Globe artists Robert and Charmion McKusick, depicting birds of the Southwest.
Bullion Plaza Museum exhibit
preserves local wildlife in art
BY DAVID SOWDERS
Assistant Editor
For almost 50 years Globe, Arizona artists Robert
and Charmion McKusick depicted birds and
other animals of the Southwest in ceramic tile
– and their work, among many other displays of area
history, can be seen at Bullion Plaza Cultural Center
& Museum in Miami, Arizona.
In 1949 Robert McKusick, who grew up in Globe-Miami,
enrolled at the University of Arizona to study ceramic
engineering. While t here he met Charmion Randolph, and
they were married two years later. He became a craftsman
at Desert House of Crafts in Tucson, making ceramic tiles
and ashtrays.
Tucson was in a building boom at the time, and McKusick
saw the Sonoran Desert disappearing. Working as
a team, he and Charmion, an ethnozoologist, resolved to
preserve desert wildlife in art for posterity. In 1954 the
couple moved back to Globe, where Robert had patented
a clay mine, the Weary Lode, at the base of the Pinal
Mountains.
From their studio in Kellner Canyon, the McKusicks
produced ceramic tiles accurately depicting birds and oth-
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32 Gateway to the Copper Corridor 2022