The University of Arizona Press
December 4, 2025
The Arizona Highways podcast features an interview with Ann Lane Hedlund, author of Mac Schweitzer: A Southwest Maverick and Her Art. Hedlund is a cultural anthropologist who collaborates with Indigenous weavers and other visual artists to understand creative processes in social contexts. From 1997 to 2013 she served as a curator at Arizona State Museum and professor at University of Arizona, Tucson.
Asked about what is was like to chronicle the life of a person she had never met, Hedlund answered: “I lived with Mac artwork in my home . . . . I’m a cultural anthropologist who has worked with other artists my whole career, so I was used to watching artists. My fascination is in the artist’s process.” She approached Mac’s story as an anthropologist, as she said, “following the threads of the story.”
Listen to the full podcast here.
About the book:
In Tucson during the 1950s, nearly everyone knew, or wanted to know, the southwestern artist Mac Schweitzer. Born Mary Alice Cox in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1921, she grew up a tomboy who adored horses, cowboys, and art. After training at the Cleveland School of Art and marrying, she adopted her maiden initials (M. A. C.) as her artistic name and settled in Tucson in 1946. With a circle of influential friends that included anthropologists, designer-craftsmen, and Native American artists, she joined Tucson’s “Early Moderns,” receiving exhibits, commissions, and awards for her artwork. When she died in 1962, Mac’s artistic legacy faded from public view, but her prize-winning works attest to a thriving career.
Author Ann Lane Hedlund draws from the artist’s letters, photo albums, and published reviews to tell the story of Mac’s creative and adventuresome life.
