Read below for stories about our featured artists:

POETRY

Poetic Field Excursion- Summer 2013

PAINTINGS

Chiricahua Leopard Frog, water color by Caldwell

Dennis Caldwell will be displaying his watercolor wildlife art at the CWP Reception, with originals and prints for sale. His paintings feature local fauna of the southwest and have been featured on the covers of US Fish and Wildlife Recovery Plans. He has been working on conservation efforts with endangered species of Cienega Creek and the Empire Valley since the late 1990's, developing an intimate understanding of the ecology of the area. In 2010, through a grant to the CWP, Dennis and a team of biologist received funding to recover the federally threatened Chiricahua leopard frog in the Cienega Creek watershed. Dennis and others worked closely with CWP to form a conservation alliance with over 60 federal, state and private partners known as the FROG Project. 

So Sotol, Acrylic by M. Milstead

The Drawing Studio Plein Air Group are artists who find inspiration through direct observation of the Natural World and Landscapes of Southern Arizona. Meredith Milstead explained: "Last summer we found ourselves working together to bring awareness to the beauty and rich diversity of an area soon to be impacted by more mining. As we spent hours and hours capturing light and color, listening to birdsong, watching wildlife, enriching our work and our health, we developed a connection to the area beyond expectation. Our artwork is testimony to our experience of being in the region and appreciation of its diverse beauty. We come together to witness a land we wish to preserve and not forget and to communicate our feelings to others through our work." These Plein Air Group artists will be featured at the CWP Reception including Maria Arvayo/Pastel, Valerie Milner-Graham/Oils, Meredith Milstead/Acrylic, Gay Scheibl/Oils and Mikaela Quinn/Oils.  

DANCE FILM

Rosemont Ours: A dance film honoring the species that would be impacted by the proposed Rosemont Mine

Rosemont Ours: A Field Guide is a 20- minute film that will be shown at 2:00 during the Reception. It features movement meditations by dancers expressing the embodiment of flora and fauna in the northern Santa Rita Mountains and nearby riparian areas by New ARTiculations company members and guest dancers. Rosemont Ours is filmed/edited by visual artist Ben Johnson and directed by Kimi Eisele, and features an original score by Vicki Brown & David Sudak.  The project was born in response to the proposed construction of a open-pit copper mine, applied for by a Canadian mining company, that would impact some 14,000 acres of land in the Cienega watershed, including critical habitat on public lands for nearly a dozen species federally recognized as threatened or endangered as well as precious riparian areas and groundwater resources. The film, "invites us to consider our role as both stewards and consumers of nature".

LIVE MUSIC

P�ca will provide live musical entertainment during the CWP Reception.

Puca is the dynamic duo, based in Tucson, AZ, including Dave Firestine and Claire Jamieson Zucker performing traditional songs and melodies of Ireland and Appalachia. Claire Zucker is also the Director of Sustainable Environment at Pima Association of Governments. For about two decades she has been part of the hydrologic monitoring in the Pima County Natural Preserve of Cienega Creek. With P�ca, she sings and plays the bodhran and the concertina.  

 PHOTOGRAPHY

the CWP Reception will feature select pieces from the full photography exhibit

The Lens on the Land photography collection exquisitely shows the cultural and ecological richness of the Santa Rita Mountains and surrounding watershed. Over the past year, local photographers Josh Schachter and Brian Powell have created and gathered powerful images of this special place from photographers throughout the West. Many species represented are rare to impossible to see in person. The cultural landscape is illustrated through portraits of ranching families, nuns from a secluded abbey, vineyard owners, and recreationalists. The intent of the project is to bring attention to a region that deserves celebration and help inform the public that it is under threat. The Lens on the Land project hopes to help the viewer to understand, "We have a decision to make as a community regarding whether this mine is worth the cost." 

Emerging Agave Stalk, by Stephen Strom, photographed following the Ryan Fire which raged through the Audubon Research Ranch in 2004.

 Stephen Strom is former CWP board member. He has donated three of his framed photos for the CWP Silent Auction as well as a signed copy of his book, Sonoita Plain: Views from a Southwestern Grassland. In this book of photos and words, Jane Bock, Carl Bock, and Stephen Strom, who are also long-time residents of the valley, share a passion for its remarkable beauty and diversity, and a deep desire to preserve the plains for future generations with careful and informed stewardship. Strom explained, the book "provides readers with insight into the ecology of grasslands, their importance to humans and wildlife, and the role of exurban development on these essential ecosystems." 

 ART BY YOUTH

Civano Middle School students, under the guidance of their teachers, Marcus Whitaker and Vince Sebastian, have also been invited to display their art projects at the CWP Reception. This is part of a larger curriculum they are following this academic year focusing on the study of healthy human relationships with the natural environment in Las Cienegas. Students are making field visits and have generated inquiry topics including: species reintroduction, the role of ranching and mining, oral histories and folklore, natural building techniques, riparian area health and recreation in the landscape.

2013 Youth Engaged Stewardship (YES!) participants taking time to reflect on their observations in field journals