Artists Once Again
September 1, 2009
If it were not for the artists in Arivaca, we would not be the place we are. Underlying the surface of this town is the community of artists who open our eyes to what is real, the seen and the unseen.
Peggy Kane is one of the most prolific artists in Arivaca, working in all kinds of media. She is originally from Delaware, and her whole life has revolved around art. As a child, she was always drawing. Right after high school she attended the Art Students League of New York City and also the University of Delaware. At one time she had a show at a gallery on 5th Avenue in NYC. She has done everything from lithographs, etching, ceramics, jewelry, to printmaking, and oil painting, and from neon and sculpture to road kill art. She has made her living as an artist. She found New York to be so highly competitive that it was killing, but she succeeded in making an interesting and productive living in art. For ten years she worked at a museum in Delaware, doing everything they needed from brochures to educational materials, to backgrounds for displays. She recreated in a painting an image of the ship HMS DeBraak, which went down in the 1790s, from a reconstruction that she worked on at the museum. This painting is on the cover of a book about the raising of the ship. When she came to Arivaca in 1993 with her husband, Nick Wyatt, she got involved with the fledgling Main Street Artists Coop right away. Among other things, she produced small tile sculptures and postcards and prints of her paintings. Subjects range from animals to tarot cards, from portraits to mythical animals. Every year she produces an unusual poster/painting for the annual theme of the Día de los Muertos Folklorico Festival in November. (These posters are for sale.) Sometimes producing art for sale doesn’t leave enough time to be creative in new ways. Two years ago she had a fire in her studio and she has been in a holding pattern until now, the new studio is done and she has finished a painting. She is experimenting with luminosity in landscapes, not impressionism. She looks at the way light would affect our environment, even light that’s not natural, an unseen light that we aren’t really aware of—at a different level of vision. When she does a painting she doesn’t know where it is going—she lets the painting go where it wants to go. Peggy moved to Arizona because of the light, the land and the beauty of the landscape here. There is a lot of creativity at all different levels here, she says, and it nourishes the spirit. She is now teaching art to developmentally disabled adults and finds that extremely fulfilling. She loves being out here in Arivaca, where she is able to push herself to see what she can do.
Antonia Gallegos came to Arivaca in 2000, along with her husband Roberto Carranza. She too has always been an artist at heart. Her family is originally from Northern New Mexico. Prior to moving here she was living in Green Valley where she was involved with the Mudheads clay sculpture club, first as a model and then decided to try sculpture herself. The subject is frequently a woman, earthy and feminine. As she says, “the work itself is a mestiza blend of Indian and Mexican influences, both primitive and sophisticated, earthen and elegant.” Her first bronze, Suenos de Tí, done from clay to bronze casting, is in the Caviglia-Arivaca Library, courtesy of the Friends of the Arivaca Library. After coming to Arivaca, Antonia got involved with artist Valarie James who had moved here from California. When Valerie came looking for property here she had an idea called the Las Madres Project, based on the idea that the suffering experienced by migrants is a subject worthy of artistic expression, to open eyes to what is really happening in families every day. Antonia and Valerie did a commission piece for the patio at the Southside Presbyterian Church. Recently they have taught classes at the Sedona Art Center and Antonia has work at the Lanning Gallery there. Antonia has had pieces on the Tubac Art Walk last year, at Valarie’s Honey lane Studio. Antonia had been torn apart when she lost her baby daughter Michelle. Thirty some years later, she found her again, and from this produced the Mended Heart. This piece and others of her work can be seen on her web page, www.antoniagallegos.com. So for artists, life’s trials tend to come out in their artistic expression, whatever media that might be. Troubles turn into beauty, or at least, bring understanding. That is what Valarie is pursuing through her Las Madres Project—“reflecting what she sees and giving voice to those who have little.” Valarie is a classically trained artist and former art therapist. Her Las Madres Project is a large scale sculpture project housed at Pima Community College’s East Campus and memorializes those who have died on the border. She teaches sculpture at Pima Community College’s Learning Center in Green Valley and has web pages: www.valariejames.com, as well as www.lasmadresproject.org.
Barbara and Rick Burton were members of the Arivaca Artists’coop for four or five years, up until about 4 years ago. Barbara had been interested in art all her life, drawing and painting and doing tiles, pottery and ceramics. Rick was into woodworking, primarily, and turned vases on a lathe. Christina Baklanoff brought them into the Co-op when she saw their work. Barbara’s marvelous tiles showing old cabins and buildings were very popular, particularly her representation of La Gitana and the missions of Tumacacori and San Xavier. Barbara still has pieces of the latter at Silverbell Traders and Tucson Museum of Art.
Maggie Milinovitch, so visible in the Connection’s production, has been an artist forever. As evident in her beautiful home, Maggie’s artistic ability is more focused—on putting things together and taking them apart, as in mosaics (or newspaper layouts). She used the same skills on tiles and stained glass. She made lamps and windows, and used to make her living doing custom work. You can see several pieces of that stained glass in the Arivaca Christian Center. She started making stained glass for her own house and taught it at the Arivaca Arts Center (previously housed in Pat Anderson’s ceramic shop) and the Tubac Center for the Arts. Her son Joseph Birkett now has a mosaic store. She made hundreds of hummingbirds. One can’t really fathom the number of tiles she first made, and then laid, in her bathroom. She and her husband Rich are now extending their creative and construction skills to La Gitana Bar.
Other Arivaca artists are less noticeable, but equally serious. One might not realize that our Postmaster, Henry Garcia, has a creative side, but he is an artist in metal. Take a visit to the Arivaca Cemetery and view the amazing new gate, which represents Baboquivari Peak (in the background behind it), and which was designed and built by Henry last year. Ask to see his notebook of other designs he has done. Then there is Cliff Alsbrooks, ostensibly a mechanic, but also an artist in leather and metal. Much of what he makes is for his own enjoyment and custom orders for friends and those who’ve seen his work.
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I am trying to find out if a very good friend and my art instructor for a year while she lived in Wyoming has passed away. I was able to get in contact with her a few years back but lost her again. I was told by some folks up here (Greybull, WY) that are actuning one of her works for a charity that she passed on, can you please inform me on Gloria Champine please? I would sincerely appreciate it. If not can you offer me advise on what to try next please. Thank you.