By Jenna Davis
Ask Gene and Erlina Edwards about the location of Galeria Mistica, their South Tucson art gallery, and they’ll tell you the same thing: “We didn’t choose the location, the location chose us.”
Some might see this as problematic and slightly ironic since the gallery’s location at 2318 S. Fourth Ave. brings in literally zero foot traffic, according to Gene. But the couple says they wouldn’t have their gallery anywhere else.
“This feels more real to me because it’s not forced to be pretentious,” said Gene. “I know what the foothills have to offer, and I never envisioned the gallery being that high-end.”
The gallery currently features the artwork of David Tineo, perhaps Tucson’s most well-known artist, famous for his Mexican-inspired murals and paintings. Tineo’s public art is featured around town, including at the Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson International Airport and the University of Arizona. He also has an upcoming exhibit at the Tucson Museum of Art in February.
Gene says they wanted the gallery to be high-end in terms of what it represented, which for them meant, “establishing a facility that will recognize the minority artists in the area.”
For Erlina, who teaches classes at the gallery dealing with spirituality and personal development, the gallery also embodies more abstract traits like mysticism, spirituality and the emergence of consciousness.
“The gallery is representative of something greater that we don’t even understand,” Erlina said.
The couple moved to Tucson from California in 2002 and looked for the perfect place for their business for two years before they found the 1944 adobe house, once a Chinese market, then a carpentry shop.
Erlina recalls the strange premonition she felt when she first saw the building. “We knew we were going to buy (it) before we even walked in.”
The couple says they had no idea the building was located in the city of South Tucson when they bought the property, and didn’t even realize South Tucson existed as its own separate city.
“The reputation is (South Tucson) is crime-ridden, but it’s hard-working people who live here,” Gene said. “I believe that the community welcomes the gallery here quietly.”
Although Gene described the building as a “big, gray room,” when they first purchased the place, the couple had a vision. After about a year of remodeling, the adobe house was transformed into a mission-style gallery with brightly painted adobe walls, dark exposed ceiling beams and a red front door.
In addition to functioning as an art gallery and spiritual learning center, Mistica is also a framing shop run by Gene, who has a degree in art education and 30 years of experience in framing.
Mistica held its first exhibit in 2005, and has since had about three to four shows each year. Gene and Erlina try to keep things fresh by organizing different events, like the exhibit they held for retired professional women who took up art, and the silent auction for breast cancer.
Before her work took her to Canada, Erlina, an interfaith minister, taught weekend classes relating to art and, spirituality and often brought in other teachers to talk on topics like astrology and numerology. When she returns to Tucson within the next several months, Erlina plans to continue teaching in the place she calls “a spiritual haven.”
It only makes sense for such a spiritually-minded gallery to exhibit artwork that follows suit. Gene thinks that Tineo’s paintings compliment the atmosphere of Mistica perfectly.
Tineo, a professional painter for more than 30 years, describes his work as “very rural Mexican,” and said his paintings feel at home in the gallery. Tineo got his start painting murals in South Tucson, then began painting all over Tucson, moving “from walls to museums.”
Because he suffers from macular degeneration, the deterioration of eyesight, he mostly paints from memory these days and incorporates subtle, 3-D features to his canvases, like caulking.
Tineo says he often uses groupings of three to represent the Holy Trinity in his artwork, and is partial to painting strong, dominant women as his subjects. Dio de los Muertos and border issues are other subjects Tineo frequently incorporates into his work.
“I want my work to represent my community,” Tineo said.
Gene admitted that Tineo caused “quite a stir,” in the gallery because of his well-known presence in the Tucson art community, and helped shaped Mistica as a gallery that denotes spirituality.
“(The Gallery) didn’t necessarily start that way,” Gene said.
But both parties seem to agree they have forged an alliance with the same goal of reaching out to the community of South Tucson.
“Here we are in the city of South Tucson, considered an impoverished area, but what we bring has nothing to do with poverty,” Erlina said. “It has to do with bringing healing.”
