When Linda Rosenfield’s Great Uncle Phil died, a lifetime of photos
almost got tossed in the trash.

His fine black-and-white prints captured New York City in the 1920s,
’30s and ’40s, picturing people, buildings, streets.

“He was not simply a snap shooter,” says Rosenfield, a photographer
herself. “He would develop and print his own images at a time when this
was most unusual.”

But when he died, childless, the family members cleaning up his New
York apartment saw no reason to save them.

At the crucial moment—”I happened to be
there”—Rosenfield rescued the cache of prints and negatives. She
held on to Uncle Phil’s images for years, not knowing just yet how she
would use them. Eventually, she turned them into combo mixed-media
pieces, painting over them and allowing passages of the underlying
photos to show through.

This weekend, during the annual fall Open Studios Tour, visitors can
get a peek at some of these haunting new-old works.

Rosenfield will be one of almost 170 artists throwing open their
studio doors to the public as part of the free, self-guided tour.
Primarily from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, artists from
sculptors, glass artists and jewelry-makers to fiber artists, painters
and photographers will show off their works in the spaces where they
were created. Gallery 801, at 801 N. Main Ave., is hosting a preview
reception, featuring one work from every participating artist, on
Thursday, Nov. 12, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Rosenfield will start her day more leisurely, opening her doors at
noon. She’s in historic Armory Park, south of downtown, and visitors to
her front-room studio can check out the early 20th-century architecture
along with the art. Plus, they can explore the culinary arts: Like most
of the other artists, Rosenfield will be offering edible treats
alongside the aesthetic ones.

“I love to bake,” she says. “I use my (backyard) fig tree as an
inspiration and make fig treats. This year, I’m making a fig cake.”

Some artists will do demos during the tour, but Rosenfield likes to
devote her time to chatting with visitors. The Tucson Pima Arts Council
sponsors the tours in part to help artists market their work, and
Rosenfield says people are often in a mood to buy. She’ll have some 25
artworks for visitors to peruse.

The humans in the new work are a first for Rosenfield, who served
for years as director of the Pima Community College West art gallery,
now known at the Louis Carlos Bernal Gallery.

“I’ve never worked figuratively before,” she says. “It’s a new area
for me. I love doing it.”

One previous series focused on the architecture of downtown Tucson.
She photographed 30 or 40 buildings, many of them now gone, and had the
prints photocopied on thick charcoal paper; she then hand-painted the
papers.

“I never really did straight photography,” Rosenfield explains. “I
always wanted to somehow manipulate that.”

In the new collaborations with her late Uncle Phil, the
black-and-white images show through the colors eerily, like faded
remnants of the past.

In “Rose’s Encounter,” an anxious older woman, dressed in a
’30s-style apron and housedress, sits in a rocking chair. Rosenfield
has painted thickly over the original, and Rose’s “real-life” face
bleeds through the paint. The shades of gray on the photographic print
contrast with the bright cerulean and rust of the paint. Above her
hovers an angel—something Uncle Phil likely never
saw—beaming its beatific face toward her. Past and present,
heaven and earth merge in a single layered work.

Ghe self-guided Open Studios Tour ranges all over greater Tucson.
Tour-goers can print out a map from the TPAC Web site, or pick up
copies at the artists’ studios. Rosenfield is at 619 S. Fifth Ave., No.
3 (792-2329); several other artists are nearby in Armory Park. Janet K.
Miller, well-known for her reverse-glass paintings, is showing a new
series incorporating old maps at her place at 522 S. Fifth Ave.
(624-8709).

Also in the vicinity are Philabaum Glass Studio and Gallery, 711 S.
Sixth Ave. (884-7404), and the Sonoran Glass Art Academy, 633 W. 18th
St. (884-7814). The Labor Temple Studios at 267 S. Stone Ave.
(575-0505) house five artists: Jean Beck (watercolors), Diane Colligan
(mixed media), Elizabeth Frank (mixed media and sculpture), Sheila
Kanter (watercolor and collage) and Phyllis Woods (jewelry).

Art-goers in the mood for a drive can go the far edges of the
suburbs. The northernmost artist is Marnie Ehlers of Good Muse Designs,
who plies her jewelry, metals and sculpture at 8570 N. Delta Way
(390-6627), near Thornydale and Cortaro Farms roads. Elena Díaz
Bjorkquist gets the prize for easternmost. The author of Suffer
Smoke and Water From the Moon, Bjorkquist also makes
3-D art. She’ll show her clay and ceramics at 4645 N. Soldier Trail
(760-3279), near East Snyder Road.

A transplant from the south, portrait and mural painter Sandra
Saltness Parks has the southernmost studio, at 6137 E. Window Ridge
Lane, near the freeway and Wilmot Road (777-5144). Most western is Ron
Schoonejongen, at 4250 N. Old Ranch Road, near Manville and Sandario
roads (682-0427). At his appropriately named Desert Sunset Gallery,
Schoonejongen displays photographs, digital and mixed-media work.
Schoonejongen’s artist neighbor, Judy Nakari, at Saguaro Studio, 4305
N. Sanders Road (682-8004), will show her paintings.

But for artistic density, the inner city, including downtown and the
nearby neighborhoods, yields the most artists per square inch. In an
unlikely location between Stone and Oracle Road, north of Grant, the
handsome Tucson Artist Colony in Placita de la Luna at 2409 N. Castro
Ave. (270-6351) houses a band of realist painters. Welcoming guests
will be Brenda Semanick (oil and water color), Hope Cunningham and
Robert Goldman. These artists also offer art classes in the complex,
located north of the Yaqui neighborhood. The original placita adobe is
said to date from 1934, with its adobe bricks hand-crafted by Yaqui
workers.

The arty neighborhoods west of the UA, from Euclid Avenue west to
the railroad tracks, offer fertile ground for artist hunters of
artists. Numerous group studios dot these quarters. The Seventh Avenue
Arts District Studios at 549 N. Seventh Ave. (624-7419) shelter
numerous participants, including painters Joel Bean and Dawn Carlson,
mixed-media artist K. Loren Dawn and weaver Crane Day. Nearby at 125 E.
Fifth St., Karen Hymer-Thompson and Kathleen Velo (248-7215) practice
the art of mixed media and photography.

This article appears in Nov 12-18, 2009.