THE Z MANSION, AZ
The Z Mansion, Oil on Linen, 90 x 120 cm, 2026
The Z Mansion
The Z Mansion is one of Tucson's most recognisable historic homes and one of the few surviving reminders of the city's Victorian past.
Painted for Aaron Avery in 2025/26, the work became an opportunity to look beyond the building itself and into the history surrounding it — from its origins as a grand private residence to its very different role today.
Today, through the work of Avant Recovery and its community partners, the Z Mansion remains a place of support, healing and service within Tucson.
Creating the painting also sparked a deeper interest in the history of place, and in the way buildings can retain traces of the lives and events that have passed through them.
A Living Archive
When I began painting the Z Mansion, I thought I was simply painting an historic building. The more I learned about it, the more I became interested in what a building can reveal about the people and society around it.
Its original purpose, the people who lived there and the changes it has undergone have all become part of the story held within its walls.
For me, that is what makes places like the Z Mansion fascinating. Architecture can survive long after its original purpose has disappeared, while continuing to acquire new meaning.
Painting
The painting began with photographs and drawings and developed over many months, allowing me to look closely at the building and gradually understand its character.
The finished work is not intended to be a literal record. It is my interpretation of a place — shaped by observation, time and the things I discovered while making it.
The Z Mansion has reinforced my interest in the relationship between painting, memory and place, and in how art can offer another way of looking at the history that remains around us.
