The artist, Ettore "Ted" De Grazia, was born in Morenci, Arizona, in 1909. His father was a copper miner. He attended public schools in Morenci and at the age of eleven went with his family to Italy, where he lived for five years. The family returned to Morenci, where he finished his grammar and high school education. He was twenty-three when he received his diploma. Later he went to the University of Arizona, where he received two B.A. degrees, one in music and one in art. He later received an M.A. degree, his thesis being the relation of color to sound. As an artist, De Grazia gained stature each year. His fame is now national and world-wide, his works earning for him high critical praise. Carl S. Dentzel, curator of the Southwest Museum of Los Angeles, appraised De Grazia's art in this manner: "Out of the land and atmosphere of the American Southwest has come an extraordinary painter. He is an Arizonan - as special, as different from other artists as Arizona is different from her sister states. His is a spirit reflecting the unequaled qualities of the sun, sand and sky which makes the Southwest the enchanted area of the United States of America. He is regional yet univeral - he is timely yet timeless. As an artist and painter, he is a paradox and paragon. He is an impressionist. He is an abstractionist. He is a realist. He is a captivating artist. His is a captivating art." Thomas Hart Benton, considered one of America's foremost artists, described De Grazia as a "master of fantasy." He has written of De Grazia's art in this manner: "A feeling of this desert quality permeates all that De Grazia does...Little pigtailed girls play in the glittering colors of a desert flowering or in the shiny yellows of a desert noon and a donkey wanders off in the opalescent tints of a desert sunrise, himself part of that opalescence. The impossible erections of the great desert cacti, with which no painter has been able to cope, become credible when invested with the poetry of De Grazia's imagination. As parts of a poetic human vision they become humanly acceptable. "This is where De Grazia's art stands out and takes on distinction in the welter of abstractions now thrust upon us. It is full of delicate and very human poetry which everybody can feel and everybody can understand. We are much in need of an artist like this."