August 15th, 2025
The City of Scottsdale has opened the newly reimagined and renovated McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park, which includes the newest artwork to the Scottsdale Public Art Permanent Collection, “Parallel Companion” by Arizona-based artist Kristine Kollasch.
CAPTION: Scottsdale Public Art and artist Kristine Kollasch installed “Parallel Companion” at the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park. Photo: Brian Passey
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The City of Scottsdale has opened the newly reimagined and renovated McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park, which includes the newest artwork to the Scottsdale Public Art Permanent Collection, “Parallel Companion” by Arizona-based artist Kristine Kollasch.
“Parallel Companion” celebrates Arizona’s natural beauty, showcasing its mountains, clouds, cacti, rainstorms and ever-present sunshine. The artwork was created with reclaimed railroad tracks and rail spikes to create the 9-foot-tall saguaro cactus and bench seat, as well as stone, commercial ceramic, glass tiles and hundreds of community-made mosaic tiles.
Victoria Sajadi, public art manager for Scottsdale Public Art, a department of the nonprofit Scottsdale Arts, said the artwork’s intent was to add a distinctly Arizona icon to the already popular Scottsdale landmark.
“This park has been around for 50 years,” Sajadi said. “It’s a Scottsdale staple that has seen children playing there for many generations, so it's definitely a special place. This park, like the trains in Kris' art, has been a companion to those generations and will continue to be one for the next.”
The new public artwork was part of the larger construction at the park entrance to the north of Stillman Station, which created a new indoor multipurpose area focused on train-themed play, a splash pad and an upgraded playground.
Kollasch has been creating public art in Arizona since 1998, with 20 public artworks throughout the Phoenix metropolitan area. While Kollasch spends most of her time in the Grand Canyon State, she travels frequently for work. During her road trips, she noticed how often trains ran alongside those on the road, journeying beside them like a constant companion.
A large part of creating “Parallel Companion” involved the community of Scottsdale in creating mosaic tiles for the artwork. Kollasch held tile-making workshops at the Railroad Park, Mountain View Community Center, Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts and the Via Linda and Granite Reef Senior Centers.
“One of the things I really love to do in my artwork is to create with the community,” Kollasch said. “We got people involved by giving them raw clay to do whatever they wanted with it. They drew a picture, they wrote their name, their grandparents’ names, their children’s names, and we took it back to the studio to glaze it and make it part of the art.”
By creating a mosaic, Kollasch was able to include not only Arizona residents but also Arizona-specific elements, such as the state butterfly, mammal and bird, as well as a rainbow with the colors listed in English and Spanish. Kollasch also placed a time capsule inside the bench of “Parallel Companion,” making the artwork not only site-specific but also time-specific.
This is only the second artwork in the Scottsdale Public Art Permanent Collection to have a time capsule inside it. The other is Ed Mell’s “Jack Knife,” created in 1993. Inside “Parallel Companion,” Kollasch stored mementos from 2025, including a Sunday newspaper; a letter from the artist; a letter from Kollasch’s good friend, who died from cancer; design renderings of the artwork; and merchandise and memorabilia from the Railroad Park’s 50th anniversary.
Kollasch has not set a time for the capsule to be opened, instead letting it be a surprise for whoever might dismantle the artwork for a future restoration or relocation, though Kollasch doesn’t expect this to happen for at least another 50 years. Until then, she hopes the artwork will continue to delight and inspire those who visit the park.
“It's humbling to be a part of something that is so much bigger than me,” Kollasch said. “And I love that I got to collaborate with so many people because they can walk up to the art and know that they were part of this. ‘Parallel Companion’ is mine, it’s yours, it’s ours.”
To learn more about Scottsdale Public Art, visit ScottsdaleArts.org.