Pens & Paintbrushes: The Legacies of Early Arizona Women in the Arts

This PowerPoint program explores the lives of 5 artists whose talents personify the beauty of the early western frontier. Hopi potter Nampeyo shaped clay vessels with an intricacy seldom duplicated today. Writer Sharlot Hall described images of Arizona’s past and preserved our history. Author Martha Summerhayes wrote of her adventures following her husband from one Arizona army post to another. Kate Cory’s abundant portfolio of paintings & photos illustrates an intense cultural sensitivity to Hopi rituals & ceremonies. Architect Mary Colter designed edifices across the southwest, particularly at the Grand Canyon. Folk singer Katie Lee still expresses herself through her songs & writings.

Award-winning author and lecturer Jan Cleere writes & speaks extensively about the people who first settled in the desert southwest. She has written five books including the just-released biography of rodeo photographer Louise L. Serpa, Never Don’t Pay Attention. Other books include Levi’s & Lace: Arizona Women Who Made History, Amazing Girls of Arizona: True Stories of Young Pioneers, Outlaw Tales of Arizona, & Nevada Women: Remarkable Women Who Shaped History. Her work has been recognized by the AZ Newspapers Assn., AZ Books Publishers Assn., Natl. Federation of Press Women, & the NV Women’s History Project. She is an American Studies magna cum laude graduate of ASU West.