Heritage Murals
Mission Garden Mural
946 W. Mission Ln., Tucson, Arizona
The Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area collaborated with Mission Garden and the the Boys & Girls Clubs of Tucson’s Pascua Yaqui Clubhouse to create a heritage mural at Mission Garden. Tucson artists Maxie Adler and Paul “Nox” Pablo, a member of the Tohono O’odham Nation, guided six, paid youth apprentices from the BGCT Pascua Yaqui Clubhouse as they created the two-sided mural which visually interprets—within the context of their own stories and traditions—the rich history and culture at Mission Garden, a site considered to be Tucson’s birthplace. The resulting mural has two panels: one side (Adler’s) depicts the life cycle of the Three Sisters agricultural crops, and the other side (Nox’s) represents desert life and the people caring for it. The rare heritage crops and heirloom trees in Mission Garden inspired the creation of the two murals. Learn more about Mission Garden here.
Maxie Adler’s mural represents the different phases of the Three Sisters, from seed and sprout, to mature plants, to fruits.
The mural was painted on a 72-foot-long, 6-foot-high wall built with blocks of recycled plastic made by sustainable block maker ByFusion. “Truth windows” on either end of the wall give a glimpse of the unique recycled building material. It’s estimated that the project diverted 6 tons of plastic waste and eliminated 18,000 pounds of CO2. Each block of fused plastic, similar to the shape of a large toy building block, fits together easily—allowing a volunteer crew to assemble the wall without masonry expertise.
Additional funding for this project was made possible by Steve Kozachik and the City of Tucson’s Ward 6 office, CalPortland, and generous donors and volunteers of Mission Garden and the Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area.
Paul “Nox” Pablo’s mural represents desert life and the people caring for it.
Artist Statement by Maxie Adler
Mural title: when we do it together
“At our first meeting with the youth artists, we went on a tour of Mission Garden. It was their first time being at the gardens. After our tour, when asked about what to include in our mural design, each of them mentioned how cool it was to learn about the Three Sisters in the Early Agriculture and Hohokam Gardens. They were amazed at how these three plants (corn, beans, and squash) grew best when planted together, nurturing and supporting each other and the soils. The youth artists also really enjoyed learning about the channels and different water systems and wanted to include this in the mural.
The finished mural is a representation of the different phases of the Three Sisters, from seed and sprout, to mature plants, to fruits. This cyclical story represents the history of this land and the passing of time, a process that’s been happening and nourishing people for thousands of years at the base of Sentinel Peak.
As in most of my work, I played with scale and perspective, making the seed and pollinator bee very large as they are important to this story. Each section of the wall explores the plants from a different view, as if you are a bug playing on the leaves.”
Artist Statement by Paul Pablo
Mural title: O’odham New Year
“The inspiration for this mural came after being introduced to Mission Garden and witnessing the hard work that goes into the space. After attending a dragonfly workshop and working collaboratively with the young artists, the direction for this mural became clear.
The completed mural represents desert life and the people caring for it. In Tohono O’odham himdag (culture or way of life), water is honored in traditional songs and stories. The monsoon rains bring life to all creation and most importantly cleanses the earth as part of the life cycle, which is a similar belief shared with our neighbors from the south, the Yoeme. The desert pollinators represented in the mural are the butterfly and dragonfly, who pollinate all plants such as hu:ñ (corn) and agave. In Tohono O’odham belief, the green rainbow is a form of good luck. The green rainbow in this mural includes rain dancers who are bringing in the monsoon clouds.
Every summer, Bahidaj (Saguaro fruit) falls from the very tops of the Ha:sañ (Saguaro cactus) indicating that the O’odham new year has begun. The traditional foods such as tepary beans, watermelon, squash and corn seeds are shown in rotation with water to complete the cycle. The squash and its blossoms are representative of where we are in life and all the obstacles we’ve overcome. Just like our foods, may we continue to grow strong and plentiful.”
Meet Maxie Adler
Maxie Adler’s work explores the interconnection of material culture and the environment. Maxie uses a variety of creative mediums, including painting, weaving, dying, and print making to archive the stories of our ephemeral world. She was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, and received her Honors BFA in Fibers from Arizona State University.
She is rooted in the textured and resilient landscapes of the Sonoran Desert, honoring the water, plants, and wildlife that call the region home. Through her work, she calls for viewers to connect environmental consciousness with community strength, acknowledging the threads that bind us to each other and the natural world.
You can reach her by email at maxieadler@gmail.com.
Website: https://maxieadler.com
Instagram: @maxie.adler
Meet Paul “Nox” Pablo
A self-made and community-raised artist, Paul “Nox” Pablo is from the San Miguel community of the Tohono O’odham Nation.
His art forms are rooted in graffiti and have evolved over time to create spaces for O’odham art and culture through community projects, murals, and collaborative art events throughout the country.
Paul’s style is reflective of the essence of the desert, colorful, vibrant, and resilient. His work can be found downtown Tucson, with institutions like NASCAR, Endangered Species Coalition, and now Mission Garden.
You can reach him by email at tha_noxones@hotmail.com.
Instagram: @noxamus
Bees:
There are estimated to be more than 1,000 native bee species in the Sonoran Desert. In the Three Sisters story, bees play a crucial role as the pollinator, continuing the existence of beans, corn, and squash for countless generations. They are herbivorous insects most known for collecting pollen from flowers using their specialized body hair and legs. They transport pollen, nectar, and floral oils to their hives to feed their larvae. Our native bees co-evolved with local plant species over millennia, making them better pollinators for our native plants and many food crops rather than the famous introduced European honeybee.
Greater Roadrunner:
Members of the family Cuculidae, the Greater Roadrunner inhabits the desert regions of the Southwest and northern California. The elevations of their home habitats range from below sea level to nearly 10,000 feet. Early in the morning, the Greater Roadrunner positions its back towards the sun, exposing its heavily pigmented skin, to warm itself up for the day. Although it is capable of flight, it prefers to run on the ground up to 15 miles per hour. The Greater Roadrunner is an omnivore and scavenges the ground for insects, small animals, snakes, eggs, fruits, seeds, and vegetation. Despite being a small bird, the Greater Roadrunner is known for its impressive bravery against venomous animals and larger predators, like the rattlesnake, that can become its prey.
Monarch Butterfly:
The monarch butterfly is a milkweed butterfly known as Danaus Plexippus and belongs to the Nymphalidae family. It is most famous for its yearly migration from the U.S. Southwest to warmer regions in California and central Mexico during the fall. The Sonoran Desert is an important destination in its migration cycle. Monarch butterflies create large breeding and migrating populations in Arizona at all elevations seasonally because their food sources, which consists of a variety of native milkweed and pollen, are available. Their migration begins in early September through middle October. Monarch butterflies populate the temperate pine and fir forests of California and central Mexico above 9,000 feet where they spend the winter.
Squash:
Squash are members of the Cucurbitaceae family, making them close relatives of watermelons, cantaloupes, and honey dews. It is one of the members of the Three Sisters agricultural crops, in addition to beans and corn. Squash thrive in the Sonoran Desert and can survive the harshest and lowest desert elevations. Being a biodiverse crop, their bright yellow flowers vary in size while their fruits differ in shape, size, and color. Special squash or gourd bees pollinate these flowers early in the morning. Gourds are hard-shelled squash that are used to create musical instruments and utensils after they dry.