Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 1

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 26, 1987 1 U3 nn 7) JJ Isleta, Belen Pupils Find They Like Each Other: See Story, Photos on Page 4 Liuu Bernalillo Placitas Rio Rancho Corrales Alameda Los Ranchos de Albuquerque Paradise Hills Taylor Ranch Bosque Farms Los Lunas Belen Destroyed Madonna -s V. ZLii Open Space Trust Starts Enlistment Of Backers Painstakingly Redone Ex-Captive Urged Los Lunas Artist To Start Over By Arley Sanchez JOURNAL STAFF WRITER By Julie Clausen OS LUNAS Maxim Adoberavoski gazed lovingly at a wax sculpture of a Madonna and JOURNAL STAFF WRITER --r Ifi f4'l itli-'. 'ii The Albuquerque Conservation Trust, a private corporation formed last spring to help the city acquire open space, has kicked off its first membership drive. Membership fees, which range from $15 to $1,000, will be used to make purchases of prime open space land as soon as possible to prevent it from being developed, said trust president and former City Councilor Marion Cottrell. The land would be held by the trust until the city could buy it and assume management.

The city money would restore the trust's operating funds for making additional purchases, he said. "I think it's going to be a very aggressive program," said Cottrell, a civil engineering professor at the University of New Mexico. The land trust was formed by 20 lawyers, architects, open space advocates and former government officials last spring to help the city protect protect open space and natural resources, such as the West Side's volcanic cliff. A 20-member board of directors will manage the not-for-profit corporation, which organizers say will be able to act more quickly than the city and engage in innovative land deals or trades the city could not. For example, Cottrell said, the city is prohibited from indebting future councils by entering into land purchase contracts peace.

Jenco was released on July 26, 1986. "I was delighted," Adoberavoski said. "I felt perhaps that the reason for her existence had been accomplished." Then came the vandalism. Adoberavoski doesn't know who the vandals were or why they destroyed the figures. Jenco learned of the sculpture done in his honor from friends in Belen, and asked Adoberavoski to complete it.

Originally, the figures were to be standing, but Adoberavoski decided to re-create the Madonna and Child in a sitting position at Jenco's request. Because he is 100 percent disabled as the result of an auto accident, Adoberavoski was able to work just a few hours at a time, and progress was slow and tedious. He estimated he's spent 2Vi years on the project. Adoberavoski also has had both breasts removed because of cancer. Jenco earlier this month came to view the work in Adoberavoski's modest Los Lunas home.

The only light in a crude, wood frame addition that serves as his studio comes from a north window. The room is populated with a tattered couch, a wood coffee table and bookcase. A copy of Andrew Wyeth's "The Helga Pictures" sits on the bookcase. There is a bleached cow's skull hanging on the wall. Another wall holds a small collection of seashells arranged on a wooden bar or platform, festooned with metal wind chimes, chains, brass cups and withered roses.

On another table sits a dusty copy of a book on the Penitentes of the Sangre de Cristos. The room looks like a seldom visited museum or the inside of an old Hispanic church. "I've had a lot of joy in my life working with sculpture, and then, there's always a lot of pain and poverty that goes with it," Adoberavoski observed. Born in Illinois, the 65-year-old Adoveravoski came to Albuquerque in 1955, and moved to Los Lunas last year with his wife, Diana. He has been a sculptor ever since.

Adoberavoski described Jenco's reaction when he first viewed the sculpture done in his honor. "He sat here in absolute silence and just stared at it," Adoberavoski said. "He seemed quite amazed and happy." Adoberavoski has asked philanthropist Child in a darkened room of his Los Lunas home, and the figures seemed almost alive. "She to me has become a symbol of peace and thanksgiving," Adoberavoski said. For a time, it appeared that Adoberavos-ki's dream of creating a symbol of peace wouldn't come true.

After working on the sculpture for several months, vandals broke into his studio a little more than a year ago and senselessly destroyed it with axes. It was as if the Madonna and Child had died for Adoberavoski. The physically disabled Los Lunas sculptor considered abandoning the project. It took an appeal by the Rev. Lawrence Jenco, the former Belen priest who was held in captivity for 19 months in Beirut, to restore Adoberavoski's determination and faith.

After he was released by his Moslem captors, Jenco wrote a letter to Adoberavoski and asked him to re-create the sculpture. That was October of last year. This Thanksgiving, the sculpture is essentially completed, and awaits being cast in bronze for eventual placement in a peace garden in Oregon. "When she was destroyed, it was a terrible time for me," Adoberavoski said, his blue eyes welling in tears. "I didn't think I would ever have the strength to try to do it again, but when Father Jenco asked me to, I decided I would try," he said.

Adoberavoski, after all, was inspired to begin the sculpture on Jan. 8, 1985, the day Jenco was taken hostage by Moslem extremists. Adoberavoski met Jenco when he was offering mass at Our Lady of Belen Church. "He is quiet and unassuming, but he has a presence of great magnitude," Adoberavoski said. "He impressed me as a person of great integrity and love." Adoberavoski began the sculpture as an appeal for Jenco's release and for world JOURNAL PHOTO DEAN HANSON calling for payments to be spread out over a number of years.

The land trust would not MORE: See OPEN SPACE on Page 4 Maxim Adoberavoski works on sculpture of Madonna and Child he first began when the Rev. Lawrence Jenco was captured by Moslem extremists in Beirut. shrine in Portland, already has agreed to accept the sculpture, and to display it in a peace garden, Adoberavoski said. "With the world in the turmoil in which it is, I would like to see her become an international symbol of peace," Adoberavoski said. "Mother and Child are symbolic of nurturing and love." Dr.

Armond Hammer to pay the estimated $22,000 cost of casting the sculpture in bronze, which will weigh more than a ton and a half when completed. Adoberavoski said Jenco has also asked Hammer to fund the request. Hammer has appeared favorable to the idea, Adoberavoski said. The Grotto, a 64-acre, beautifully wooded Thomas Chavez, a Sandoval County employee charged Tuesday with possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, works in the Department of Administration, not the assessor's office as Metro Plus was told by a State Police spokesman. Christmas Past 6 Present Childhood Presents Easily Remembered Special Gift Makes Lasting Impression Giving an Old Gift Could Be New Idea Antiques Increase in Value Over Time sit.

By Julie Clausen By Michael Hartranft JOURNAL STAFF WRITER JOURNAL STAFF WRITER Christmas, a holiday steeped in tradition, is also a time for gift-giving, renewing family ties, religious devotion and remembering the past. See more Christmas Past and Present stories on Pages 548. (ID NE RECALLS it was a simple two-cell flashlight his mother worked hard to buy during the soon as Christmas vacation was over." Despite his love for the jacket, he no longer professes to be a Yankees' fan. "Not since (owner George) Stein-brenner took over," he said with a laugh. A trio of other mayors say their favorite Christmas gifts took the forms of offspring.

Bernalillo's Ron Abousleman remembers daughter Tammy's arrival two days before Christmas 17 years ago, the first of three children for him and his wife, Helen. "(Helen) got out of the hospital on Christmas Day," he said. "So we had a regular Christmas, but it was just a little bit brighter." It was 25 years ago this Christmas that Los Ranchos de Albuquerque's Warren Gray and his wife departed for the hospital where their youngest daughter, Bonnie, was born two days later. It was a "stressful time" then, he remembered, but he proudly notes she's expected home this year from Fort Collins where she's a senior in veterinary medicine at Colorado State University. Los Lunas' Louis Huning says his favorite Christmas gift is already 8 months old daughter Ruth Ann, the family's first child, who was born last March.

Pressed further, Huning admitted one of his other all-timers was a magic set his parents gave him when he was 10. He never got proficient at the coin and disappearing tricks, he says. "But I enjoyed it," he said. Rio Rancho Mayor Grover Nash, Bosque Farms Mayor Carl Allen JT NTIQUE STORES -A often regarded as the AA sole realm of collectors A. jLJLor investors are an often overlooked source of holiday gifts, free from the crowds of shopping malls.

Whether it's china or old duck-hunting decoys, the gift of an antique is certain to be unique and one that usually will increase in value over time, say dealers in the North Valley, Albuquerque's hot spot for antique stores for decades. "If it's quality, things just tend to get older and certainly appreciate," said Anna Collatz, owner of the Green House Antiques Collectibles near Edith and Osuna NE. In the North Valley shoppers can find numerous stores within blocks of each other, offering an abundance of gift possibilities for men, women and children, collectors or not. In fact, many of the shops are actually conglomerations of numerous dealers, which results in a wider range of items to choose from. At the same time, dealers tend to specialize in a certain area, such as cut glass, and often will be able to supply the buyer with specifics on when, where and how a particular item was used.

Furniture, jewelry, china and old decoys are just some of the items dealers point to as popular mas gifts. But virtually anything in the stores will work, they say, depending on whom you're shopping for. For example, for a collector of antique cups and saucers, the gift Depression. For another it was a Chinese checkers set. One claims it was the pair of ice skates that let her play out dreams of Hans Brinker.

And for another it was his first car, a mint Thunder-bird. These folks now community leaders up and down the Rio Grande valley were recalling their favorite holiday gifts. And for many, they represented especially fond Christmases. Years later, the appreciation still runs deep. Corrales Mayor Laura Warren had little trouble recollecting a cherished pair of ice skates her brother gave her when she was 7 that "looked like the professional ice skaters' ones." "I couldn't believe it," she said, "because I loved the story of 'Hans Brinker and the Silver Being of some Dutch descent, I was going to be going down the canals of Holland the whole child fantasy and dreams." Warren, who lived in Kalamazoo, skated for years before taking up skiing.

Drifting back a few years as well, Belen Mayor Boleslo Lovato recalled a bout of "bothering my mother" that paid off when he found his wish on Christmas Day a blue warm-up jacket with a Yankees' logo on it. "I was in seventh grade," he said. "I made sure I wore it to school as of an addition to the collection can make a memorable Christmas gift with lasting value. A teen-age girl may be happily surprised when she finds a 1950s rhinestone bracelet under the tree. "A lot of people buy their wives rocking chairs for some reason," said Steve Miller, a dealer at the Antique Co-op on Fourth Street.

Or couples will come in the store together and leave empty-handed, only to come back alone later to buy something that caught the other's eye. While furniture is harder to wrap, it does make a popular gift, especially at the last minute, said Dot Atkersson, owner of the Antique Co-op. "A lot of wives would be tickled to death to get an icebox for Christmas," she said. "Any of your kitchen items that lean toward the country theme are real popular," she added. Cast-iron corn bread pans and waffles irons, for hanging or for actually using, fit into that category.

So do butter molds, cookie cutters and wire egg baskets. Costume jewelry and beaded purses are favorites among women of all ages, Atkersson said, especially as accessories to holiday party outfits. While new rhine stones can still be bought in stores, Atkersson contends they aren't nearly as nice as the old yin i JOURNAL PHOTO DEAN HANSON Antiques and collectibles, such as 1950s rhinestones, wooden duck decoys, quilts and Christmas ornaments, can be popular gifts for collectors and non-collectors alike. dolls and Transformers. The two have produced the picturebook "Country Antiques: A Child's Guide" to teach children to appreciate antiques.

Men might appreciate a mahogany shaving mirror with drawers from the period 1776 to 1830, MORE: See GIVING on Page 3 ones. Toys also can be found in antique stores, but many people don't buy them for children because of their fragility, Miller said. Pieces of old toy train sets commonly end up on bookshelves. However, if a pair of East Coast book authors have their way, antiques may become the new rage of the younger set, replacing Rambo MORE: See CHILDHOOD on Page 3.