Hello Arizona: An Art Project. How It All Started

More than 20 years ago, designer Antonio Larosa (who studied and trained as an architect in Italy) developed a passion for traveling across Arizona and photographing cacti, especially saguaros, often alongside American flags. What began as a simple interest soon became almost an obsession. He captured thousands of images during his travels, carefully storing them on CDs and building a growing personal archive of Arizona landscapes.

One day, he experimented by adding flag photos to the images he had taken. It was love at first sight. What started as a fun and creative experiment quickly grew into something much bigger. Early works were created by hand, cutting and resizing flags and blending them with photographs of saguaros. Over time, the process evolved into a detailed digital technique, still requiring careful artistic work to match the curves and character of each cactus.

As the designs gained attention, people began requesting them for catalogs and websites. Soon even large American organizations, such as the National Italian American Foundation, asked Antonio to feature his unique and imaginative artwork. More recently, thanks to their originality, the designs have appeared on a variety of Amazon products (produced by Amazon) including bags, water bottles, and phone accessories.

The project originally began under the brand name Ciao Arizona, combining Italian and American cultural inspiration, and later expanded into Hello Arizona.

Well... now you know the full story ...and  of course, in more than 20 years of creating the “Flags on Saguaros” artwork, no saguaros were harmed in the process. 😉

Thank you …and may the beauty of Arizona be with you!