Mac Schweitzer: A Southwest Maverick and Her Art In Tucson during the 1950s, nearly everyone knew, or wanted to know, the southwestern artist Mac Schweitzer. Born Mary Alice Cox in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1921, she grew up a tomboy who adored horses, cowboys, and art. After training at the Cleveland School of Art and marrying, she adopted her maiden initials (M. A. C.) as her artistic name and settled in Tucson in 1946. With a circle of influential friends that included anthropologists, designer-craftsmen, and Native American artists, she joined Tucson’s “Early Moderns,” receiving exhibits, commissions, and awards for her artwork. When she died in 1962, Mac’s artistic legacy faded from public view, but her prize-winning works attest to a thriving career. Author Ann Lane Hedlund draws from the artist’s letters, photo albums, and published reviews to tell the story of Mac’s creative and adventuresome life. Her watercolors, oil paintings, prints, and sculptures—a diverse body of work never before seen in public—range from naturalistic studies of Sonoran Desert animals to impressionistic landscapes to moody abstractions. A sharp observer of Indigenous life, she sketched and painted scenes of Navajo (Diné), Hopi, O’odham, and Yaqui people and events. These unique portrayals of the Southwest illustrate this saga of a maverick artist rediscovered.

University of Arizona Press, Booth #247 (Seats 1)
Sat, Mar 14, 12:00 pm - 12:50 pm
Fine Arts / Photography

Author: Ann Hedlund

Artists offer a special bridge to understanding the Southwest. Artist Molly Hashimoto and biographer Ann Hedlund, author of Mac Schweitzer, discuss why works of art and books about art and artists are critical to our understandings of this special place.

UA Library/Special Collections (Seats 110)  
Sat, Mar 14, 4:00 pm - 4:55 pm
Fine Arts / Photography
Signing area: Sales & Signing Area - Integrated Learning Center (following presentation)  

Panelists: Molly Hashimoto, Ann Hedlund
Moderator: Christine Brindza
Sponsors: Session made possible courtesy of University of Arizona Libraries, University of Arizona Press, Heidi and Timm Nelson

In this session, the authors of four Southwest Books of the Year will discuss the role that landscape and culture played in the development of their work.

UA Library/Special Collections (Seats 110)  
Sun, Mar 15, 2:30 pm - 3:25 pm
Southwest Books of the Year
Signing area: Sales & Signing Area - Integrated Learning Center (following presentation)  

Panelists: Craig Childs, E.A. Hanks, Ann Hedlund, Dora Rodriguez
Moderator: Gregory McNamee
Sponsors: Session made possible courtesy of University of Arizona Libraries, University of Arizona Press, Barbara Smith