After two months of covering old crimes in Arivaca, perhaps it is time to turn to the law.
One of the streets in Arivaca, over on the west side, is named Paul Street. Chances are, this is named after a well-known Sheriff of Pima County, Robert H. Paul. Or at least you would think that. However, the owner of an Arivaca homestead, just west of town on the Refuge property, was Robert J. Paul, the son of the Sheriff. So perhaps it would take some serious investigation to find out just which one the street is named for. Robert H. Paul, a native of Massachusetts, came to Arizona in 1877 as an employee of Wells Fargo, and decided to stay. Having had several years of experience as a sheriff in California, Paul decided to contend for the Pima County Sheriff position. It took some doing, as ballot box-stuffing was a common practice. After it was all over (a story worth reading) Paul had won, a position he held from 1881-1886. As Sheriff he was fearless and tenacious in his pursuit of the lawless, which included Doc Holliday and the Earps. At 6 foot 6” he was larger than life. In 1881 Cochise County split off from Pima County, relieving him of a large and difficult territory. In 1890 he became U. S. Marshall for the Territory, and held that post until 1893, after which he served as Justice of the Peace in Tucson. He passed away in 1901.
Around the turn of the 20th century, there being so much smuggling along the border and lawlessness in general, the Territorial Legislature decided to create a company of Rangers, along the same line as those in Texas. This took effect March 21, 1901. According to Joseph Miller, “Arizona towns scattered along the border were the daily scenes of murders and fierce personal encounters, and the smugglers and cattle rustlers were grown so bold as to ply their business openly…so well organized were these men that the few civil officers and scattered troops of the U. S. Cavalry were powerless against them. ”* The Arizona Rangers were chosen from (mostly) cowboys who knew the border range and were good shots. They were to patrol the territory, especially the border, catch those fleeing from the law and break up the smuggling rings. Burton Mossman was chosen to be the first captain. It was he who chose the first 14 Rangers. Later that number was increased but never to a large number. Mossman held his position for a year, and was replaced by Thomas Rynning. The only known local person who became an Arizona Ranger was Charles Eperson of Oro Blanco, a relative by marriage of Alonzo Noon. The Rangers’ duty was to uncover smuggling and other illegal operations, catch and transport the alleged criminals to the nearest law enforcement officer. At this they were very successful, and reports showed that several hundred errants were arrested each year. This was during the unsettled years before the Mexican Revolution when Emilio Kosterlitzky’s rurales patrolled the other side of the line. In 1905, Rynning reported: “The most cordial relations exist with the Mexican authorities who have at all times assisted and cooperated with us in the pursuit of criminals and the recovery of stolen property taken into Mexico. We have always followed fugitives into Mexico and the International line is no longer a protection for criminals from Arizona. ” Times have changed.
J. T. “Rye” Miles was Sheriff of Pima County from 1917-20. He had come to Arizona from Texas as a cowboy and joined the Arizona Rangers. After they shut down in 1909, he worked as a livestock inspector. (One of his relatives lived in Arivaca about that same time—J. T. Chambers worked at the Arivaca Ranch for several years.) Rye is mentioned (with a photo) in California Cowboys when he was working a big Arivaca roundup in his capacity as livestock inspector. Rye Miles was elected Sheriff of Pima County in 1916 and held the post until 1920. He passed away in Casa Grande where he served as Town Marshall and Constable.
The following references are available from the Library: *The Arizona Rangers, edited by Joseph Miller, California Cowboys by Dane Coolidge, Arizona Sheriffs: badges and bad men by Jane Eppinga, and Robert Havlin Paul: Frontier lawman: the Arizona years by Roy B. Young. Also visit the Arizona Rangers room in the 1904 Courthouse in Nogales.

A. C. (Alf) Lamb was also a miner who had come to Tombstone in 1888 and worked there for a time before moving to Tucson. He was employed by Wells Fargo as a driver, but maintained his interests in mining. In 1905 he was prospecting in the Old Oro Blanco and Tres Amigos area and had interests in several mines there. Apparently he also had enemies. On the night of April 2 he was blown up as he slept in his bed. The Arizona Daily Star reported: “Some persons having a grudge against Lamb, as is conjectured, on the night of April 2, placed a stick of giant powder, connected by a fuse far removed. The explosion that followed blew out the side of the cabin where Lamb slept. Lamb’s body was found to be terribly disfigured with part of his head being torn away.”

A. C. Lamb was known to have had some disagreements with Jasper Scrivner. In a memoir published in 1959, Jack Ganzhorn, nephew of Lamb, told of a story in which Lamb and Scrivner both claimed the same mine. In 1896 Lamb had allegedly inherited a mine called the Beehive from an old man named Silvernail. Scrivner claimed Silvernail owed him money and thought the mine should belong to him. In Tucson, one night in 1896, as Ganzhorn related, “three strange men were heard to say they were leaving on the morning Oro Blanco stage to run Alf Lamb off the property and take possession.” Only 15 at the time, Ganzhorn was enlisted to ride out ahead of the stage and warn Uncle Alf. He started out on horseback, early in the morning, carrying with him a quantity of extra ammunition for his uncle. Alf and Jack barricaded themselves in the mine tunnel with their dutch oven, supplies, blankets and a barrel of water. The men arrived the next day, carrying plenty of fire power. Not realizing that Alf had been warned, they were surprised when they found themselves facing a couple of rifle muzzles pointing out of the mine tunnel. They backed down quickly, but not before they had mentioned Scrivner’s interest in the mine. Jack always felt Scrivner had some connection with the murder. In addition, just before Lamb’s murder, he and Scrivner had allegedly quarreled, so when Lamb was found dead, the first person accused was Jasper Scrivner.

A couple of weeks after the murder, Scrivner was in Montana Camp (Ruby) when he was arrested by two Arizona Rangers, who shackled him and set a guard. Justice McClenahan, who was living in Old Oro Blanco and was acquainted with Scrivner, held a preliminary hearing and charged him with the crime. Other than the known bad blood, there was really no evidence to charge him with the crime, as the Star reported. “There are those who say that there is undeveloped evidence which points to other parties.” This did not surface, but neither did any evidence against Scrivner that was conclusive. Everything presented was circumstantial.

After a few months in jail in Nogales, Scrivner was cleared. But as the Oasis reported: “Scrivner did not enjoy his freedom long enough to take a stroll around town, however as Deputy Sheriff Cook was on hand with a warrant sworn out of the Justice Court of Oro Blanco, charging him with a misdemeanor. The charge was based on the accusation made by a woman of Oro Blanco that Scrivner had threatened her. This was in regard to other evidence provided in the former hearing. In a second indictment, he was charged with rape, the victim being her 14 year old daughter. Apparently he had argued with Lamb over the girl too. This information had come out in the hearing, complicating the whole affair. Scrivner’s attorney asked for a change of venue, but Justice McClenahan declined to grant the change, stating that “he was running his own court.”

After some more time in the Nogales jail and several lawyers later, Scrivner was again exonerated of any crime, a physician asserting that there was a physical condition rendering guilt impossible on such a charge. No other evidence had come to light.

Scrivner went back to mining and later ran a store in Old Oro Blanco. Years went by. Then, on the night of March 5, 1914, Scrivner was seated in his room, by an open window. He had closed his store for the night. The Citizen reported: “Benito Carrizoza heard shots at the store and ran to the Warsaw for help. On reaching the store, all was quiet. They went around the house to see what had happened and they saw Mr. Scrivner through the back window. He was lying on the floor and apparently had been murdered… Mr Scrivner had been sitting at a table reading a mining journal. They shot him twice through the window, the bullets entering the back of his head and neck. He just fell over sideways, but remained in the chair, his glasses and book falling on the floor. The house was ransacked for money and gold. They found some, but missed a pint beer bottle almost full of gold which he had hidden among some quilts… the robbers did not find it but after searching for it they tried to set fire to the house by pouring oil around and laid the lamp down and covered it over with quilts, but in their rush, they smothered the flame. Mr Scrivner always showed his gold to everyone that came in and no doubt that was the only motive for the crime as nothing else was disturbed. Mr. Scrivner was over and had Mr. Dillon melt some gold for him into a bar on the third of the month. That was gone. Mr. Dillon thinks about $400 was gone according to what Mr. Scrivner told him on Tuesday that had been there.” (Tucson Daily Citizen, March 10, 1914.)

The criminals were never found, but Scrivner’s wife believed that Mexican bandits were to blame, the border only being two miles away and similar murders having subsequently happened at Ruby. Scrivner left behind a wife and sons. A.C. Lamb left a wife and four children. Neither murder was solved.

Nowadays, topographic maps show a canyon named in Jasper Scrivner’s honor: it lies near Warsaw Canyon in the area where he used to mine. The only trouble is, they spelled it Scribner.

References: Arizona Daily Star, Tucson Citizen, Nogales Oasis newspapers. I’ve Killed Men: an epic of early Arizona by Jack Ganzhorn. Thanks to Al Ring for his help. Note: these murders happened near Old Oro Blanco, which is about two miles from the border, not the Oro Blanco on the Arivaca-Ruby road.

Correction: In the July article about Geronimo, I referred to Mrs. Peck’s niece as Jenny. However, her name was Trinidad, sometimes shortened to Trini.

This was not the first community quilt in Arivaca. In the 40s there was a 4-H Club whose quilt is still preserved. Later, some 20 years ago, back in the beginning of the Arivaca Arts Council, Lorraine Armour taught quilting classes. They met at what is now the Ceramics Shop and then moved to more space at the Old School. Lorraine led a group in the making of a quilt which hung in the Arivaca Community Center when it was first dedicated. The making of community was in itself part of the process. Another quilt was made to give to Kathy Sheldon in thanks for all her work with the Arivaca Arts Council. Another quilt was raffled off to benefit Lee Williams.

Katie Lusby loves to quilt by hand. She and her friend Marty, with help from Tillie Urias, did the thousands of stitches in the purple border on the Arivaca quilt. She got started at least 45 years ago and has done many quilts since then. Her most original design was a Disney quilt done for her daughter’s friend’s anniversary. A Katie-designed Winnie the Pooh quilt block hangs on the wall of Arivaca Library. Now she is working on an old quilt done by Ernie Grimm’s mother. It was put together but was never quilted onto a backing, which Katie is doing so Eva can donate it to the Arivaca Christian Center. She loves to quilt with her friends, like Tillie Urias, who became interested in quilting because of Katie. Some 20 years ago when the ceramic shop was the Arivaca Arts Council’s center, 15 women each made 15 blocks and traded them, so each of them could make their own community quilt. Tillie still has hers, which she put together with the help of Katie.

Janis Beckelman started quilting at least 30 years ago and took a class from Lorraine Armour. She participated in the quilt that went to Kathy but after that it was all by herself. She makes them for her own satisfaction and often with someone in mind. She has made many baby quilts. She loves playing with colors and describes her work as traditional patchwork with contemporary colors. She often pieces them by machine and then does the hand quilting. Janis’s quilts are well known in the community and many people can identify her style with no hesitation!

You know a serious quilter when they have an area dedicated to their craft. Comfort Cover’s handsome quilts are on virtually all of the beds in her home, which has been on the Home Tour several times. Each quilt is designed to complement the furniture and room design. The upstairs living room is an ocean of quilt materials, projects and displays. Many people have seen her quilts in previous Home Tours.

This year’s Home Tour, held on January 30, will feature a display of quilts done by Patty Goodsell. A resident of Arivaca for about five years, Patty began quilting at a very young age, to honor the memory of her grandmother. She is a traditionalist and makes the entire quilt by hand. Originally she made patchwork quilts until she retired and looked for something more challenging to do. She too, is very interested in color, especially different greens and how things are shaded. She uses color cards to match with the colors in nature, such as flowers. After thirty years or so of quilting, she challenged herself to begin making what have become award-winning quilts. often taking years to make. She keeps a journal for each one. Her most recent project is a Baltimore Album Quilt which she has worked on for four years. Each block in this kind of quilt is different and they were originally made in the 1840s-50s as gifts for public figures such as ship captains or pastors. Now there is a revival of this style to keep quilters on their toes.

Patty’s “Magical Medallions” quilt won the Best of Show and the Hall of Fame Award in the Tucson Quilters Guild Quilt Fiesta Show in 2008. You can see this, before the Home Tour, at the following website: www.arizonaquiltershalloffame.org.
Patty’s quilts will be shown in the newly renovated Old Schoolhouse.

About this time the Arivaca Community Center was being formed, and it was natural that the two organizations would work together with the former as the location for theater and arts productions, which the Arts Council would fund through grants. The Arts Council provided entertainment for the grand opening of the Community Center, July 4, 1985. At that time, Rural Grant monies provided half the cost of programs with Arivaca providing the other half.

In the beginning, the Arts Council focused on pottery and the visual arts. In 1986 an opportunity arose to rent a building in town from Ike and Mike Turnpaugh. With a grant, they bought a kiln and equipment and Kathy began teaching pottery and ceramics, using hand techniques, the wheel and ceramic molds. This expanded to include visual arts classes taught by C Hues and stained glass by Maggie Milinovitch and quilting by Lorraine Armour. The building was used as the Red Feather Gallery with showings by local artists. Finally the Arts Council gave up this building and began going in other directions. (Mike and Ike ran the ceramics shop for awhile and it was later sold to Pat and Andy Anderson.)

Over the years, many artists were involved with the Arts Council, either as board members or contributing artists. Susie Kromenacher was another of the local artists who helped in the beginning efforts of the Arts Council. (For years Susie’s gypsy could be seen on the wall of La Gitana). Sabrina Sweetwater, Libby Brandt, Patty Hanson, Connie Deere, Melissa Cowen, Deborah and Steve Steinberg, Hal Buckingham, Debbie Walls, Meg Keoppen, Ellen Dursema, Mark Dresang, Maggie Milinovitch and many more were also involved, either on the board or teaching or whatever needed to be done. Other projects followed. Many grants were written and received. In 1986 the face mask project made Sunset Magazine! For some time masks of many local faces hung on the wall of the Arivaca Community Center.

As time went on in the 80s, the focus changed. Nina Baldridge began teaching theater arts at the Community Center, which included acting and dance as well as stagecraft. A professional drama teacher and producer, Nina’s direction provided the children and adults of Arivaca with a rare opportunity to be involved with an exceptional theater experience. C Hues taught art classes for stage backdrops. A generation of children grew up with theater and learned how to act and do stagecraft. Scrooge, The Wizard of Oz and numerous other programs were developed and performed. It was an amazing endeavor of all the artists in the community. The Community Center received a Pima County Community Development Block Grant to expand the stage area. When Glo Williams started Blue Sky Learning Center the Charlie Brown Christmas program was a part of the children’s activities. The Arivaca Childrens Theater and Arivaca Performing Artists performed until 1996 when Nina left Arivaca.

Patti Lopez picked up the tempo with dance classes and performances for children and adults, along with assistance from the Annie Bunker Dance Troupe. Tom Shook was involved, as a sponsor of the arts and assisting with getting grants for sound and light equipment, along with Brad Knaub (who had also portrayed Scrooge and the Wizard of Oz). Allen Wallen was involved with the sound and light. Everything required effort on the part of someone who took the time to make things happen. A large percentage of the community members were involved.

Since then, the Arts Council has written grants and sponsored programs of various kinds, such as Barbea Williams Dance Performers and OperaTunity, but the effort has been less intense. Individuals who had been involved went off to do other things. Sabrina and Patti passed on. Some moved away. Kathy began teaching first grade (a high intensity profession). But things can and do happen, and Kathy still has hopes and would love to hear from anyone who is interested in revitalizing the Arts Council. The generation who benefited from the most artistic immersion has begun to take charge. Second-generation Arivacans Nathalie Dresang and Aja Knaub, along with Jenni Stern, recently put together a dance workshop featuring trapeze work and an enthusiastic group of young girls took part. These are the now-grown-up children (and their children) who have inherited the love of the arts that came out of the years of dedication and professionalism of the Arts Council. Look for this presentation at Winterfest, a variety show to be held at the Arivaca Community Center on December 12 at 6 pm.

Thanks to Kathy Sheldon.

There is no muse of art! Attributing the unceasing need to create to that inborn but still outside-of-oneself source is an often used excuse by those starving artists who sometimes feel that their talents aren’t appreciated by the rest of society. Dating to the Classical Greek era, Muses are “spirits who inspire the creation of literature and the arts.”  Nine Muses (in female form) exist for the various manifestations of poetry, history, music, tragedy, comedy, dance, and astrology, but surprisingly, not visual or fine art. However, in Ancient Rome, this spirit did exist for any creative venture and was identified as a “genius.” Not that you were a genius, but that you had a helpful spirit called a “genius” who provided you with the creative mystery of your art.  Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, discusses this very subject online on her website, in a very worthwhile talk: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

Ben Salinas has been a Carivaca resident since about 2003, but his early years were formed by his artistic soul. He was born in Mexico City and attended art school there.  He met John Dewar, who realized his artistic potential and sponsored him to come to the U.S. Ben attended Pasadena City College and learned English, working as a gardener to put himself through school, and eventually obtained a Masters in Fine Arts from U.C.L.A. A prolific artist, he had a gallery in Pasadena and produced abstract paintings in acrylics, as well as sculpture, works in multimedia, wood, papier mache and wood.  He was fascinated by philosophy and art history and despite his current handicap, which was caused by a brain aneurism when he was in his 40s, still has the soul of an artist. Some years ago he moved to Patagonia with John, who had been a museum curator and artist. Ben had shows in Patagonia, and became well known there. Now he has retired, but on the wall of his room there are a number of pieces of his art that evidence the enormous talent he harbors. (Thanks to Laura Toby for Ben’s story.)

Rosemary Shillue is a relative newcomer to Arivaca, but on next year’s Home Tour you can see the art she is bringing to our valley.  A born artist, she started doing art in grade school in her home in Boston. By the time she was in high school she was focusing on other things, like math. Her first job was at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Laboratory where she was one of the first to specialize in keeping track of the ever-growing number of earth satellites.  When she and Bill’s family reached five, she quit that job but began the study of art with a well-known Massachusetts artist. She progressed through oils, acrylics, pastels, watercolors, charcoal and pen and ink. Art shows kept her busy, as she produced paintings of “Boston Swan Boats,” Plymouth Harbor, as well as calligraphy. Quick charcoal portraits made her customers happy and helped her paintings to sell.  She did do one commercial sign commission:  a picture of bacon and eggs, sunny side up, that was very successful for the breakfast bar—within five minutes of hanging the sign a customer came in and said” I couldn’t resist that sign–give me a plate of eggs and bacon, just like that!” So, variety is the spice of Rosemary’s life—from cartoons, calligraphy, still lifes, portraits, house portraits and landscapes, mostly done in watercolor. Supported by her husband Bill, whose talent seems to be in writing (thank you, Bill) and woodworking (on their retirement home) Rosemary is overcoming macular degeneration and planning to try something new.

Mark Stern, known to many as the painter of the gypsy mural in the patio of La Gitana, has an interesting and colorful history, which contributes greatly to his fascinating and absolutely unique western art. After a childhood spent roaming the West, he attended school in northern New Mexico, near the Cimarron River, followed by college at the University of New Mexico and Colorado Metropolitan State College, where he studied art.  The cowboy life seemed attractive, so he spent summers working on local ranches and then learned to be a farrier. These skills served him well in later years working in the Big Bend of Texas and then in Mexico, where he spent years working with horses and ranching. It was there that he got a feel for the old ways of cowboy life. This is what he portrays in many of his paintings. He varies his styles. He has one series of surrealistic space cowboys. Elongated horses and people remind one of El Greco, but impressionism also appears, as well as basic realism. His themes are Western, but they may include cockfighting in Mexico, Tombstone gunfights and his view of the vanishing American wilderness. He may have been a cowboy, but his real life is that of artist. Using acrylics and oils, he paints how life used to be (way back) and what he himself remembers of how life used to be in the West. His “Old West” may date back only to the 1960s, when many people didn’t have electricity and you could still camp along side the road in safety. Mark Stern’s art has appeared in the Mountain Oyster Club in Tucson and in Tombstone galleries. He has been in Arivaca about seven years, where he enjoys the peace and quiet, and keeps painting.

Speaking of murals at the La Gitana, we are sad to report that Lucille Depper, the artist who, in 1950, painted the first gypsy on the south wall of the dance hall at La Gitana Bar, has passed away at the age of 92 in McGee Ranch. Lucille was another lifelong artist whose interest never waned. She drew and painted, mostly oils and acrylics, and also taught art. She felt that some people had a hidden talent, if she could just draw it out. In the 50s she painted western scenes on dresses and those wide squaw skirts that they sold at Porter’s and Cele Peterson’s in Tucson. Her daughter LaVerne said that she was always painting something for somebody.  She painted a mural on the wall of the old Sahuarita store, of a cotton farm, and a mural on the baptistery at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Sahuarita. She was from a long line of painters, going back to an ancestor who was a portrait painter for the king of England, and she passed the talent on to her children and grandchildren.

Light and color, nature and spirituality continue to shine through her many paintings. Born in Singapore, and living a wonderful childhood in Indonesia (“I loved to accompany my sea captain father down the wide, shallow rivers of Borneo”), the variety of languages, cultures, foods, and people influenced her paintings and way of thinking.

The family returned to the Netherlands, where Dolly studied at the The Hague Art Academy. “Draw your hand, ” the instructor told the students. “Which one? ” asked Dolly. “Draw your right hand with your left hand, and the left one with your right. ” She did, much to the amazement of everyone! The paintings from this period, just around and during World War II, show flowers in vases, dark colors and shadows. She escaped on a raft crossing a freezing river in January, from occupied northern Holland to the freed southern part. Freedom and courage were her middle names.

Many years later found Dolly in her beloved San Diego, where she painted canvas after canvas, with clear, light, beautiful colors, no shadows. Hours would pass, and she wouldn’t know it. They were a part of her, and she a part of them. “These flowers are not in this world, ” she would comment.

The last five years, from 1999-2004, Dolly lived with her family in Arivaca. She reflected on her adventurous life, loved to tell stories, and painted a few more paintings. Looking at one of the last, she said: ”You know, there’s writing on the colored stones of the wall, but I can’t read it. ” We like to think Dolly’s up there, painting those desert sunsets, adding her brush strokes to the mountains and trees. In her own way, of course.
(Thanks to Wendy Dresang for this article)

Lauri Barr, a Tucson almost-native, has been living in Arivaca since 2003. Lauri has always been an artist. She remembered getting up in the middle of the night with a flashlight because she wanted to draw in her sketchbook in the quiet of the night. At the age of nine she really realized her affinity to art when summer school teachers loved her drawings of sunsets. She took art classes all through school and majored in Fine Arts Education at the University of Arizona. She was inspired by Maurice Grossman, her ceramics teacher at the U of A. After college she taught sculpture classes and had a totally free spirit teaching experience at the clay studio at Green Valley Recreation. When her son was born she went back to school and got an elementary school certificate. Her first year she taught at a school on the Navajo Reservation, where the school board president’s uncle was the famous artist RC Gorman! Then she came back to Southern Arizona and taught for 17 years at the old Tubac School and then Rio Rico. The last five years before retirement she taught middle school art in Nogales. On her own time, as a destresser, she developed her own art. She does everything—painting, jewelry, sculpture, paper cutting. She likes the immediacy and brilliant colors of acrylics. Her favorite thing is whatever she’s doing at the moment, but she doesn’t dabble—she masters whatever medium it might be at the time. She is an artist of her own freedom, she says. Her favorite goal is to be more in tune with the moment, now that she is retired and free of most scheduling and events. Except for a few. She does two or three shows a year to sell her art, and the next one coming up is at Avalon Gardens in Tumacacori at the end of October. After Christmas, Lauri will be doing an altered books workshop at the Arivaca Branch Library.

George and Mary Alice “Sis” Bradt were a great influence on those of us who went to Sopori School in the 1950s. Sis was an artist in her own way, and expected it of us. All projects we undertook were illustrated in many and various ways, using bas relief, watercolor, drawings or just well done graphic design. Sis had a kiln and we learned “potting” under her direction. George’s forte was photography, and we were given the opportunity to use his professional camera to take and develop photos. They used photography to illustrate our annual program—on e we did the Iliad, with all of us playing a part, reading into the tape recorder and then showing it on slides. (Later on they did movies with the Elgin students.) They had a long reach and influence–in later years George encouraged my daughter and her cousin, so that each can do professional quality photos. The Bradt’s home was filled with original paintings and they each always expected to have a room devoted to their own projects. One of the students who remembers them fondly was Judith Casey Clauss, whose innate artistic talent was evident in childhood. She always had to draw, horses in those days, but now moves from one creative medium to another—from a long spate in watercolors—to art quilts, embroidery, book making pop-up cards, scrapbook and memory books. She too is an accomplished photographer. Judith keeps a sketchbook always at hand and spare moments are filled with drawings of what she sees. Maybe they will become something more, maybe not. One of my early memories was of wishing that I had Judith’s artistic talent, but if not, then just learn to appreciate what others can do.

Lorraine Armour, now an educator in Virginia, spent years in Arivaca when her children were young. A quilt hangs on the wall in the Library to remind us of her tenure here. Lorraine majored in art in college, where she focused on 3-dimensional art and clay, but later on found fabric more to her liking. She made quilts, fabric dolls, pillows, and holiday things. She considers herself a crafts person, not really an artist, but her contribution to the Arivaca art scene merits some discussion. She started the Main Street Artists’ Coop –she got 10 people together to contribute $50 each toward the rent of the same building it resides in now. Those people included Deborah Steinberg, Hawk and Patti Lopez, Ellen Dursema, Nancy and Robert Fricchione. Familiar names in the Arivaca art scene. Before that time there was a group of people who got together to draw, and to draw on each other’s talent and enthusiasm. It was dynamic times, Lorraine said, and it revolved around getting the children involved in art and music and drama. Then Nina Baldridge moved here and started the dance and drama activities, which eventually became very professional. “The children all had parts in the plays, ” Lorraine remembers, “and it was so amazing. You can’t imagine what an asset it is for these little rural children to be exposed to that kind of real culture. There were a lot of selfless people who donated time and energy. ” And it was not dependent on having so much money, but having the time to devote to the creative process, with artistic persons like Lorraine willing to share and teach.

More about artists next month.

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.

Gloria Champine has lived in Arivaca since the mid-1980s, when she came here for her health. Gloria had been a gallery owner and well-known Western artist in Wyoming. Her childhood was spent in Montana, on the Canadian border. One of her first memories is of drawing on a blackboard the image she saw in a painting on her grandparents’ wall. Her grandfather was so impressed with the five-year-old’s innate artistic talent that he encouraged her to pursue art from then on. “I couldn’t be happy unless I was painting, ” she admits, and would crawl up a tree and paint. She always knew, she says, how to render the size of things. She understands perspective. Her horses and wild animals—elk, deer, birds—all have perfect proportion, no matter the angle at which they are represented. She notices how the light changes from day to day and creates “postcard moments. ” Gloria has endless curiosity about things and even now, with advancing age and arthritis, she does as much as she can. Her first subject and interest was people and horses. After some excellent art instruction in high school, she took design and painting classes in college, as well as taking classes from private instructors. She has lived in many different places, but moved to Greybill, Wyoming with her children after her husband died. It was there that she opened a gallery called Rustic Reflections, which she had for fifteen years, and began teaching. “The pleasure of painting can be had by anyone, ” she says, “Why not see beauty as it is? ” Her genuine pleasure in art is infectious. She is a realist, in artistic terms, or as she says, a “responsive artist. ” She believes that her art comes from a deep place inside her, and doesn’t do it to impress anyone. Nonetheless, her wild animals and mountains are amazing. The most truly beautiful picture of Baboquivari Peak that I have ever seen was by Gloria. “A lot goes into artistic creativity—what makes it go from craft to art is the emotional content and universal appeal. That is the ultimate goal. ” In terms of peer approval, her goals were realized with some national art awards while in Wyoming. But with exposure to the chemicals in paint, especially oils, she became sensitive and decided to move to a warmer climate for the sake of her hands. She found Arivaca in the usual way, through a realtor, but after being here a while she knew this was home. “This is a healing place, ” she says, “that is what it has been for me. ” And now it’s start-again time for Gloria, whose new chosen surname is Chapugh, an amalgamation of her name and her former husband’s. She said, “the beauty of being an artist never leaves you, only your health, or your will. ”

Jerry Patton has been carving mesquite quail for years, and most everyone has one. He has been part of the Artists’ Coop for five years. He got involved in art because his father was an oil painter of western landscapes. He tried that too, giving away the paintings to any number of friends who still have them hanging on their walls. Now he mostly carves mesquite quail. He got started carving on a big elm log that had been thrown away. Using a claw hammer and chisel he carved a four-foot long seal. After that it was just mesquite and he has probably done hundreds of the little quail as well as rabbits and other animals. Their warm patina invites you to hold them. Besides carving Jerry does barbed wire designs such as windmills and bull heads. He has all his own designs of those but what he likes best to do is commission work. He has had his carvings in a number of galleries in Tubac including the Manos Gallery. Art is what he enjoys, but his life’s work was in the military. He was in the Air Force and Air National Guard and was a Flight Engineer for 19 years, as well as being a crew chief for any number of airplanes. In 1979 he and his late wife moved to Arivaca where they built a place and he put up his own windmill. Jerry had been hunting down in this part of the world in the 1950s and always liked it. During those years he didn’t do much in the way of art, but when he retired he had time to do it. Recently he inherited his dad’s paint box, but he doesn’t want to do that any more. He’s friends with arthritis now, and it is hard to carve and work the barbed wire. Perhaps if you want one of the little quail, don’t put it off any longer.

Ellen Dursema got her love of crafts from her mother, who was very crafty, and from her father the wannabe inventor. “Working with my hands came naturally, ” she says. She had taken some art classes, but in college she majored in social work. The art won out, and she began finding jobs in that line—once she worked at a store making feather hat bands and jewelry.

She got into doing leather craft when she was hanging out with some bikers and started making chaps and other things for them. She acquired the equipment gradually and taught herself. At one point she moved to Memphis and got a job at Tandy leather, where they soon had her teaching classes. When she came to Tucson she worked for James Leather on 4th Avenue. She decided she could make a living with leather crafts by herself, so she made up an inventory and began selling at fairs around Tucson, and renaissance fairs in California. She had a booth at the Womens’ Center in San Francisco. For five years she and Harry traveled in their bus all up and down the Pacific Coast. Her best fair was the Michigan Womens’ Music Festival. Shortly before she went to that one she dreamed that she should make loin cloths, so quickly she made a batch of those that sold out! She made over $5000 at that festival! She came to Arivaca in the late 80s and once she started having kids it seemed better not to travel, but to settle down. She got involved with the Arts Council in its earliest years and helped start the Artists’ Coop. Now she still does some leather work but mostly she is into tie dye. She got into that when someone gave her a tie dyed baby item. “There can never be too many rainbows in the world, ” she says. “ It’s fun and most people love it. ” Her intention in everything she makes is to help and to heal. Her favorite thing is to teach people how to make tie dye. To that end, she is planning a Tie Dye Workshop on July 22 at the Arivaca Community Center. (If you come by the week before you can tie the item, then dye it on the 22nd)

Nancy Fricchione, after years of working with her late husband Robert, has come into her own in the last few years with mesquite furniture, including all kinds of tables, chairs, benches and also smaller objects such as cutting boards. Nancy’s beautiful furniture shows her skill at working with wood, and her ability to see the object in the wood beforehand, seeing the lines of how the grain and color in the wood fits together. Recently, she began making small mesquite boxes decorated with wood burning techniques, using southwestern butterflies and plants as the subject matter. Nancy came from Oregon to the Gulch in 1978, with Obe and Sabrina. Nancy and Robert lived back in the hills near the border for 10 years, raising their children. Nancy had left Oregon, hoping to have an adventure, and her life became one. They lived 3⁄4 of a mile from the end of the road, and what she enjoyed most was the quiet, the plants and just walking. Nancy had attended Mt Hood and Portland Community College, but art was not her major. The creative move came one day when she and Robert were cutting firewood at the Sopori. Robert saw some very beautiful logs and didn’t want to waste them in a fire, so they made a stool for grandson Nicolas. That was 17 years ago and when people saw what they had made, the business took off. They made benches and tables and chairs. They were part of the original artists who started the Main Street Artists’ Co-op in the early 90s and Nancy is the bookkeeper. After Robert passed away, Nancy kept on with the mesquite furniture business, using a Lucas sawmill from Australia. She has had to adapt to working in her own strength, but her talent is there and her furniture is mellow, comfortable and beautiful.

Michelle Peacock is from New Orleans. She came to Arivaca seven years ago with a friend, and found it to be such a loving place that she returned to stay. The daughter of teachers, Michelle grew up in the French Quarter. She started as an art major and studied at the Memphis Art Academy and also Spellman College in Atlanta, also having lived in Montreal and Europe. She studied ballet and is a singer and songwriter, having worked in New Orleans’ Jackson Square as an entertainer. She even danced for a time with Isaac Hayes. We have heard her sing and play in Arivaca at the Coffee Shop and with the Druthers. She loves it here and will paint houses as well as doing signs and art paintings. Michelle is a true folk artist in the Southern tradition. Her scenes are unusual, original and can be everything from a Jamacan jungle to the Merc. There is no doubt that her farmhouse with chickens is somewhere on a bayou. Mixed media is one way to explain her art—using many layers of different kinds of materials for a 3-dimensional look, and focusing on acrylics as the medium. She has used whatever kind of paint there was available to her. Since her father’s people were from Jamaica, there is a Caribbean influence. She has shown in art galleries in Key West, New Orleans and Aspen, Colorado, and more recently has had her work in the Red Rooster Restaurant. Her home is her gallery, and a most unusually quaintly quintessentially Michelle place it is!

Richard Conway is the newest artist to show in the Arivaca Artists’ Coop. Richard is creating Andean bamboo flutes and pipes, using bamboo grown in Tucson at a big bamboo nursery and pipes made out of Barbara Stockwell’s reeds.  He got involved in Andean music a couple of years ago while on a trip to Mexico.  While having dinner, a storm came up over the Yucatan. After it was over, a wonderful flute sound came wafting down the street.  Somehow that went right to Richard’s heart, and he immediately went down to find out what was playing. The Andean music muse had tapped him on the shoulder.  He quickly learned that here are pan pipes called siku by the Quechua Indians in South America, which are called zampona in Spanish.  There is also the quena, an end-blown flute similar to a recorder. Richard is making sikus and quenas and plays both. Andean music also uses drums and a small stringed instrument like a mandolin, called a charango, which has 5 pairs of strings. Richard played the trumpet in school as well as recorders and the dulcimer later on, so he was musically inclined from an early age.  A geologist by profession, Richard was also a potter for many years, making Japanese inspired vessels. So he has always had an artistic bent, but this connection to Andean music is new. For a mentor, Richard has found a luthier or instrument maker from Buenos Aires, Argentina, who makes all kinds of bamboo instruments. By next fall, there should be a selection of Richard’s own flutes and pipes from which to choose at the Arivaca Artists’ Coop. Many of us were introduced to the music last December at Winterfest when Richard, Mary Scott, her mother Mary and Ed Kolhepp performed Andean music for us. Their new band is called Filo del Mundo, which translates as “The Edge of The World”. They plan complement the Arivaca music scene in the near future.

Mary Scott is the local Renaissance Woman, and the charango player in Richard Conway’s Andean band, Filo del Mundo.  Musically, she’s better known from her days singing and playing guitar with Camelphat, a local cover band, and Kaivaly, a spiritual folk-rock band that played mainly Mary’s original music at equinox and solstice celebrations. Artistically, she’s probably best known for her photographs of birds, mammals, butterflies, flowers, landscapes, and more, which she has displayed at the Arivaca Artists Co-op since 2002.  In the past two years she has created short films highlighting (and documenting) the richness of Arivaca’s natural world and presented them at the Arivaca Film Fest. Says Mary of her art, “It’s easy to be an artist when your subject is the beauty and diversity of nature!”  It’s tough to predict where Mary’s artistic expression will take her next, but music and photography will most likely be involved.

Phil Bastien is a jack of all trades, and an artist to boot. You will find his mesquite lamps, candleholders and free-form sculptures at the Artists’ Co-op. Although a life spent on the open seas left little time for art, Phil had done some stained glass. He did some beautiful cabinet making using a lathe to turn bowls, boxes and wine bottle stoppers. Then he got into jewelry making after finding some fire opal while on a local prospecting trip. A jeweler friend from Peery Sound, Ontario, taught him to cut and mount stones that he had polished using a 6-wheeled Genie. He uses Arizona’s agate, opal and turquoise, set in sterling silver. He calls himself a “craftsperson” rather than artist and says, “I enjoy making things with my hands. That doesn’t mean I’m artistic. ” Begging to differ, one can see the artistic eye in the work he does, and hope that Phil continues to keep busy.