(Courtesy Photo)Author of Bisbee Walls: Past and Present Colleen Crowlie and Silver City mural artist Diana Ingalls Leyba will offer a joint presentation about the unique and fantastic wall art of our two towns at the Silver City Public Library on Tuesday, December 11, 4:00 p.m. Photos of wall art ranging from intricate stone work to graffiti-style ephemeral art will be shown. The event is free, no registration necessary.

Bisbee Walls: Past and Present hails the working class ingenuity that built a town up steep canyon walls so that thousands of people could live close to the Bisbee, Arizona mines that were some of the richest copper mines in the world at the turn of the 20th century. Hundreds of rock walls were built with native rock to hold up the houses on the sides of canyon walls. The Past section of the book shows the types of rocks used and early walls and the evolution of building with mortar and other materials. The Present part of the story features the most beautiful and distinctive contemporary stone walls, murals and mosaic walls that have been created by 20 local artists with over 150 photographs of their work and descriptions of how they work.

Bisbee Walls author Colleen Crowlie explains, “I love rock walls. I see beautiful rock work every day at home and all around Bisbee. After Lee Adcock died I realized I had waited too long to talk to him about the walls he made. His death has inspired me to get some of the stories about Bisbee walls written down. Walls are one of the town’s best features.” Crowlie has written two other books, Step by Step: Beautiful Bisbee ~Plants~ and Curse of the Black Bubblegum: A Bisbee Halloween.

Diana Ingalls Leyba is the coordinator of the Youth Murals program in Silver City, and has served as the lead artist on dozens of mural projects. As described by the Mimbres Region Arts Council, “Youth Murals is a program that transforms the vision of local artists into an educational opportunity for our youth.  Local professional artists work with students in schools to design and produce murals. For each mural, students interview area residents and historians to incorporate their history, culture and aesthetic concepts into a relevant theme.” Ingalls Leyba is also an artist in other media, such as painting. She explains, “I see my work as a culmination of several trains of thought I've explored throughout the years and as an integration of several aspects of my personality(s). I like the universal in the personal and the sacred in the common place.”

For more information about library events, see silvercitypubliclibrary.org or contact Lillian at 575-538-3672 or ref@silvercitymail.com. The Silver City Public Library is located at 515 W. College Avenue at the corner of College and Cooper Street in Silver City.