a newsreel, called 'Watch the World,' where they filmed DeGrazia and Marion making these ceramics. DeGrazia's wife, Marion, recalled this time as "all work and no play." "The only time for relaxation away from the studio was on the trail in the Superstition Mountains, while prospecting for gold, or with the Indians in Arizona and Mexico. When invited to have a show in Cannes France, he refused to go. The only place he wanted to be was in Indian country." DeGrazia explains himself, "because I was born in the southwest, and live there, I live it with a passion. The state has a harsh temperament as though it were alive. It is rough, colorless, and silent. And yet, you feel a gentleness, see beauty, and color in a storm, the skies roar, the cactus of the desert in its prickly silence bursts forth for a moment of exquisite beauty." Some of his more famous friends included Lee Garmes, Vincent Price, Iron Eyes Cody, Namara Traviata, Alan Hale, Jr., Navajo artists Harrison and Robert Chee, Lee Marvin, Thomas Hart Benton, Olaf Wieghorst, Sammi Smith, Jack Van Ryder, Pete Martinez, Ross Santee, and Broderick Crawford of the t.v. series Highway Patrol. In 1960, DeGrazia got his big break. UNICEF requested permission to use his image of Los Ninos, an oil painting, to produce greeting cards. Many millions were sold worldwide, giving DeGrazia the title as most reproduced artist in the world. During this time, DeGrazia's popularity and success exploded. In 1976, DeGrazia engaged in a protest against the Federal Inheritance Tax. The artist claimed the U.S. Internal Revenue Service rulings made him "a millionaire on paper, but my heirs will have to pay taxes for which there is no money." In his well-publicized protest, DeGrazia rode horseback into the Superstition Mountains and burned about 100 of his paintings, an estimated worth of 1.5 million dollars at the time. The only way for DeGrazia to avoid this huge government taxation was for him to make his Gallery In the Sun a non-profit foundation. In this way he was able to keep his collection intact and also his fortune. In 1982, DeGrazia died of cancer on September 17, at the age of 73. His beloved Gallery In the Sun has been listed on the National Historic Registry as a historic district, in 2006. Notes References External links DeGrazia Foundation website 1909 births 1982 deaths