Over the past twenty years we’ve traveled and worked in an area known as the Sky Island region consisting of southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico and a portion of northwestern Mexico. We are Athena and Bill Steen of The Canelo Project, a small non-profit organization located in the foothills of the Huachuaca mountains of southeastern Arizona. Like many who live close to the Border, our relationship to it is very personal. For us, it is not a rigid division between two countries, but a continuous landscape connected by ecology, culture and history that inspires much of our work – from natural building to photography.

We are mostly known for our work and books on straw bale and earth construction, but our work is “cross border” in nature, concerned with how people occupy this landscape. The heart of what we do is connecting people from different cultures and walks of life with one another in order to gain a deeper understanding into how we as human beings can live more in harmony with our natural environment.

We look for ways to counteract the powerlessness that is so prevalent in our modern day world by encouraging people to do more things for themselves while having fun in the process. Our focus is on simpler ways of meeting our basic needs, especially food and shelter, without sacrificing what is creative and beautiful. Hopefully, the photographs in this exhibit will communicate something about our love for the work we do, the places we’ve been and the friends we have made along the way.