ANIMALSCAPES ART SHOW.

Hidden Giants by Lori Kelly.   The rules behind this competitive art show called Animalscapes, of Amador, Calaveras and Tuolumne counties, required depictions of animals from our area. I know we don’t have elephants.

Chains to Flowers by Jim Sells.  A second elephant, embracing an unmistakable theme, and preciously done, reminded me that we do have elephants in Calaveras county, in the rescue acres at PAWS, the Performing Animal Welfare Society. They definitely live here.

Black Tail Deer by Laurie Williams.  The animals I see the most is deer.

Companions-Sifu Berchtold. And these pesty little beauties, the pileated woodpeckers.

Whee! By Juliana Tillman. Visitors can vote for a favorite. I spoke with an arts council friend who was a judge and she was surprised at the outcome. She did not reveal her choice as discretion is important in these things. None that placed would have been my picks. I find that happens a lot at art and quilt shows.  I quickly decided this one was going to be my fav. The opening event was one where you could meet the artist, and I met some of my favorite artists. Not all had an entry, but they do turn up for the arts.

Meet the artist, Juliana Tillman  I managed to corral the artist, I’d never met before.

Spotted Owl-Forget Me Not, Diana Boyd.  There were many owls entered in the competition. Held at Kautz Winery, I learned that the Owl is the symbol of the Kautz Coat of Arms.

And, two real owls there to raise money for Wildlife Rescue organizations. This is a barn owl.

And this sawwhet owl is three years old and looks like a baby. She bites, the rescue worker told me. Her role in life is to tear her prey to bits and she is good at it. On an African Safari I took in 1997, that point was made so unforgettably clear, I could never again view deer as Bambi’s nor lions as talking characters. The wild is something to respect and I never cross that line and feed wild animals. I love watching, though.

Bell Meadow Bears, Karen Nina Kling. Baby animals, no matter what specie, are adorable.

The Threat by Marta Magstrali.  Named the threat, huh!  The most petted piece in the show. You couldn’t help but run your hands over this unique fellow.

The little mouse on his behind made me smile. What an enjoyable piece of art.

And, then I came upon the piece I voted for. This Horse Head by Larissa Stephenson. So real looking I wanted to reach out and pet its nose, even though the feel of velvet would be missing.

The show had a musician and young women passed out champagne and hors d’oeuvres. It was lovely and I’ll see the show again when it moves to Amador County. I’m meeting a friend from Discovery Bay there for lunch next month.

I met Art Director, Susie Hoffman. I stopped her to take a picture of her feather earrings, very Native American looking. She bought them in Paris. She is director at Town Hall Arts, Galerie Copper in Copperopolis. She invited me to visit and I will get there one of these days. I love that I live in a community where the arts have such  great prominence. For the rest of my photos click the link below:

 

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YUMA TERRITORIAL PRISON.

If you drive by the prison, cells gouged from the south wall are visible from the road, along with the Mission Church Steeple and the two famous bridges that cross the once mighty Colorado River. Though we visited the prison on a previous visit, we decided to do it again.

The prison is now a state park and when you look over the edge from above, the territory around the river is wild;  sand, river bed, desert stretching all the way to Mexico and even horseback riders on this day. Three-Ten to Yuma was filmed here.

Inmates built the prison cell block by cell block after the first building was built in 1875, approved by the legislature as a territorial prison, since Arizona was not yet a state. This edifice was actually a well, once covered by planks, then later electricity was used to pump water. Later still, Covered over and a guard tower erected on top of it. The well and electricity gave the place a reputation as being a country club.

While true, the prisoners were also correct in calling it a Hell Hole.

Still, inmates desperate to escape, tried many times to do so. Some made it. Most failed.

Territorial law was harsh.

Otherwise law abiding citizens, yes, but no prostitutes were arrested, the type of woman men appreciated.

The sister, who was single, was not arrested.

As consenting adults, we take our freedoms for granted.

 

After several many times serving in solitary for breaking prison rules, and two escape attempts, inmate C.E. Hobard finally settled in and served his life term for murder.

He worked all day in the quarry, building more cells; during his spare time he made beautiful lace. Several shops on the grounds gave inmates the opportunity to make and sell things. If they couldn’t make a tin cup, for instance, they did without a cup. Draconian.

There were some real bad guys. Leslie worked with Wyaat Earp at the Oriental Bar in Tombstone. He killed Billy Clairborne of the Clanton Gang. He killed his girlfriend in a drunken rage. Earp claimed Leslie was the only gunman who could compare with the speed and accuracy of Doc Holiday with a six-gun.  Yet, he only served 10 years of his life term.

The original bunks were wooden, but lice and bedbugs were so endemic, they changed them to metal.

Adding to the hell hole of discomfort, hard metal beds, open cells like this were ventilated during Yuma’s hot summers, even if metal doors heated up to the point you could burn yourself to touch one. But during winter, you froze at night. Other open-on-one-end cells were deadly hot in summer, but a bit warmer at night and winter. A perfect lose, lose.

Punishments, if obeyed by administrators, were simple but also harsh. The ball and chain confinement in a solitary cell, or the Dark Cell. An unlighted area, no toilets, no change of clothing, multiple people chained to the steel grid on the floor at the same time, with no light nor ability to lie down. One man served 102 days in this cell and came out a model prisoner. Two women served time in this cell for breaking rules.  Stinkin’ brutal.

The prison is a fascinating place to visit. They have a gunfighters gathering on the grounds the first two weekends of January that was a wonderfully costumed competition we attended in 2011, I believe. It is worth planning your visit during that event.

When the prison closed, it was used by various organizations, most notably, a High School, and later a home for people displaced during the depression.

The High School Mascot was the Crims, for criminals. Don’t miss the historic Territorial Prison tour when you visit Yuma.