one of Ruth's beautiful bird drawings

Birds With An Attitude, a solo exhibit by Ruth Canada, will be on display in the gallery at Kirk-Bear Canyon Library January 3 – January 31, 2012. The exhibit features a series of vibrant bird paintings in acrylic, mixed media and watercolor that depict birds displaying human-like behaviors.

Canada, a signature member of the International Society of Acrylic Painters, Contemporary Artists of Southern Arizona, Southern Arizona Watercolor Guild and Arizona Watercolor Society was awarded a competitive scholarship to study commercial art at the Chicago Academy of Fine Art and continued her fine art education at Northern Illinois University.

Art has been her passion since childhood. Raised in rural Illinois, Ruth developed a closeness and sensitivity to nature and animals. Retiring from her commercial art career to Arizona, her love of the Southwest is now reflected in her subjects and palette.

Meet the artist at a reception Sunday, January 22nd from 2-4 p.m. in the library’s meeting room.

"He who has the gold....rules", courtesy of the artist

I’ve enjoyed viewing Ruth’s acrylics and watercolors over the years, have purchased her note cards, and once luckily won a Giclee reproduction of her large watercolor painting “Blonde’s Duck” at Agua Caliente Park. As a former board member (3 years) at this Pima County Park, her colorful painting is a real treasure for me.

Statement from the artist from her website about painting birds:

My closeness to nature and sensitivity to animals is the result of growing up in rural Illinois. The current bird series is inspired by watching the desert birds outside my Tucson foothills studio. I see not only how they look, but what they do and how they act. Birds are a kick! They have behaviors and attitudes like people. Observing them, understanding their delights and struggles, intrigues me. I enjoy sprinkling my birds with a little humor just for fun. These contemporary bird paintings are rendered in my signature palette of brilliant to deep rich colors. The birds can startle a viewer or charm them into a smile.

One day, a vulture landed outside the studio. Its size amazed me. I began to research vultures and they quickly became one of my favorite birds. They are masters at soaring, conserving energy and going days between meals. I found also, these gentle birds are not predators. Some say they are ugly, but my painting, Two of a Kind, is saying… “not ugly if you are another vulture.”

To learn more about artist Ruth Canada:
Sunstone Artworks Studio
Tucson, Arizona
Phone 520-577-0664
RuthCanada@msn.com
www.RuthCanada.com

Kirk-Bear Canyon Branch library is located at 8959 E. Tanque Verde Rd. The library hours are Monday to Thursday, 10 to 8 p.m., Friday 10 to 5 p.m., Saturday 9 to 5 p.m., Sunday 1 to 5 p.m.

event flyer

Roy P. Drachman Agua Caliente Park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 9th, 2009. The Friends of Agua Caliente Park (FOAC) recently purchased a plaque to commemorate the event and it will be unveiled in front of the Historic Ranch House during the ceremony on October 30 at 1 p.m. District 4 Pima County Supervisor Ray Carroll and several key Pima County Parks and Recreation representatives are expected to attend. The public is invited.

As a former board member (3 years) I can attest to the beauty of this park and the years of hard work it took to get this park on the historic registry. Congratulations to the current board & officers, as well as everyone else who helped with this worthy preservaton project.

Check the FOAC website (http://www.friendsofaguacaliente.org) for further information on the park & its membership opportunities/events. Contact President Jim Knoll at jimknoll@friendsofaguacaliente.org or Phone: 520-760-7609.

History of the park from the press release:

The Friends of Agua Caliente (FOAC) was formed in 1993 in an effort to save a historic site in the Tanque Verde Valley [Agua Caliente Park] and was successful in saving three of the park’s original five buildings. FOAC has been formally recognized three times by the Tucson-Pima County Historical Commission for its involvement in the preservation of existing buildings and saving the pond site. FOAC was instrumental in securing a Heritage Fund Grant for the renovation of the Bunkhouse (opened in 1997) and has since worked with Pima County on paved walking trails, signage, benches, and other amenities at the park. The Ranch House was renovated and opened to the public on April 17th, 2004. The Friends of Agua Caliente is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation.

Roy P. Drachman Agua Caliente Park contains a natural hot spring the flows through faults between gneissic rock and has been a long-inhabited settlement. Archaic projectile points found within the park boundaries date back to 5500 years ago, suggesting the site was used by hunters and gatherers. Around 1150 AD, a Hohokam village, referred to as the Whiptail Site, was established that extended into a portion of Agua Caliente. Peter B. Bain established a formal claim to 160 acres in 1873 and James P. Fuller purchased “Agua Caliente Rancho” in 1875, establishing an orchard and cattle ranch on the property. Gibson DeKalb Hazard purchased the property in 1935, operating it as a working ranch while also growing fruit and alfalfa. In 1951, Art & Clare Filiatrault and their family took over the ownership of Agua Caliente. Local businessman Roy P. Drachman donated over $200,000 in 1984, providing the incentive for Pima County to acquire the property and establish Agua Caliente Park.

photo of historic ranch house, courtesy of Susan Knoll

Visit the stone remnants of a WWII prison camp named after Gordon Hirabayashi,the Japanese American from Seattle who served his violation of curfew conviction there, from 1943 to 1945. It can be reached by driving up the Catalina Highway in Tucson heading to Mt. Lemmon, and just beyond the 7 mile marker, turn left to the Gordon Hirabayashi Recreation Site in the Coronado National Forest.

Gordon Hirabayashi as a college student

Here’s a photo of Gordon as a young man in 1942,as a Senior at the University of Washington when he challenged the relocation order of E.O. 9066 & violated the curfew in Seattle. He was turned himself into the F.B.I., was convicted, and appealed all the way to U.S. Supreme Court on constitutional grounds, but his conviction was upheld at that time. (see Hirabayashi vs. U.S. 320 U.S. 81 (1943). Because the Federal Attorney did not want to pay his way to the Federal Prison Camp in the Santa Catalina Mountains in Arizona, Hirabayashi hitchhiked from Seattle, saw his family in an internment camp in Idaho, and arrived in Tucson where he had to convince the Federal Marshall to imprison him.

In 1987 his case was re-opened and and overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. The National Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (which I as a legislative aide helped U.S. Senator Inouye create) investigated the mass WWII Japanese American internment and determined that it had been caused by “racial prejudice, wartime hysteria & failed political leadership”. President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act in 1988, apologizing for the relocation/internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans, 2/3 of whom were U.S. Citizens, on American soil.

Federal prison camp map

Above is a photo of the map of the Catalina Federal Prison Camp. The prisoners laborers built 24 miles of road (the Catalina Hwy) through Coronado National Forest, completed in 1951. The prisoners housed there were convicted of breaking federal immigration or tax laws, most were conscientious objectors, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, Hopi Indians and Japanese Americans (about 40) protesting their relocation & draft. Many resisted the draft because their families were at the same time in the 10 large W.R.A. internment camps. (These resisters were later pardoned by President Harry Truman in 1947).

In 1999 the Coronado National Forest named the recreation site after its most famous inmate Gordon Hirabayashi (who later earned a Ph.D in Sociology). Interpretive signs (see photo below) were installed in 2001. See National Forest’s website (click here) for more photos of Dr. Hirabayashi and the prison camp itself, which existed from 1937 to 1973.

Mary Farrell, a Forest Heritage Program Leader & Tribal Liaison for the Coronado National Forest has given lectures at Agua Caliente Park and elsewhere, about this prison camp. Her email is: mfarrell@fs.fed.us, phone 520-388-8391.

During a recent visit my husband and I walked along the paths and riverbed of the former prison camp, trying to imagine the life of the federal prisoners in that remote, but picturesque area. There are numerous concrete slab building platforms and walls still remaining, and stone abutments along the riverbed. It is a somber remembrance of the injustice done to my people (including my father), fitting on Labor Day 2010 (today).

The present site is suitable for picnicking, hiking, camping, mountain biking, bird watching…and reflecting.

tourists reading the interpretive kiost signs at Gordon Hirabayashi Recreation Site