People don't think about the problems along the border for very long. It’s because it involves death and that makes us very uncomfortable. At least this is what Deborah McCullough believes. It's kept her committed to making a difference in the way people think about the border.

“This is going on right here," she said. "Right now. And its something I can do something about."

McCullough grew up on the East Coast, but has called Tucson home for 20 years. For the last four, she has become highly involved with different humanitarian organizations, such as No More Deaths, The Tucson Samaritans, and Border Links.

McCullough is a board member for Border Links and is in charge of art consulting. Currently, she is establishing a program called Just Arts. The goal of the program is to reach out to people in other communities.

There will be three one-week workshops where volunteer artists will spend three days experiencing the border for themselves, then have three days to create a piece of art to illustrate the experience. The seventh day is set aside for travel and rest.

“The artists take what they create back to wherever they’re from … they can put it up in a school, their church, or wherever they think needs it,” McCullough said.

Border Links is committed to educating those who may try to cross the border about the dangers they face. It’s not that they don’t know people die trying to cross the border, it’s that they don’t understand why they’re dying, McCullough said.

It’s the poor who seek work in the states. And the poor are too busy and too desperate to educate themselves on what they are up against, she said.

Although she has always believed in helping the less fortunate, it wasn’t until she saw the film "Just Coffee" that she realized the severity of conditions along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“There is an incredible injustice going on in our own back yard, but we don’t want to admit it,” she said.

As a Tucson Samaritan, she participates in drives and walks along migrant trails about 15-30 miles north of the border, putting out water or fresh socks for those fortunate enough to make it that far. She said it is usually about this part of the border that migrants begin to face physical challenges.

Dehydration and blisters are the leading precursors to death for migrants, McCullough said. She finds countless soda cans along the trails. Many migrants think it will help keep them going, but the reality is fatal. The caffeine dehydrates them much faster than they would become otherwise.

The blisters on their feet become unbearable, causing them to fall behind. When that occurs, they are alone and their chances of survival are reduced from slim to almost none, she said.

Sometimes another member of the group will stay behind with the sick, but eventually they leave to find help. When they do, they rely on landmarks, like a hill or a big tree, to find their way back. But from a distance, all hills and trees can look the same.

As border security tightens, people are forced to venture farther west where humanitarian aid is scarce because it is private land of the Tohono O’Odham tribe.

Physical and environmental factors aren’t the only dangers along these trails. There are also bandits looking for someone to rob, McCullough said. Statistics show nearly all women who try to cross the border are raped.

As an artist herself, McCullough has been making various kinds of art to tell the stories she encounters through her volunteer work. She collects all kinds of belongings from the trails: bibles, shoes, makeshift water bottle carriers, tortilla holders, identification cards, pictures, silverware, toothbrushes, symbols of saints and clothing.

From shrines and dolls, to books and jewelry, she creates 3-D art that gives admirers the chance to touch and experience a little piece of life and death on the border.

She said her art is her way of raising awareness to the issues and trying to keep the problems from getting swept under the rug.

It’s frustrating because a lot of people just don’t get it, nor do they want to, she said.

“We didn’t get outraged about Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans … we aren’t outraged over they war … we’re probably not going to get outraged over this,” McCullough said.

Her art is also her outlet for the many strong emotions she feels as she continues to experience learn more about the border. It’s important to her to remember that among the sadness that lingers in the desert, is also much joy and hope.

They are more than migrants. They are mothers, brothers, families, friends and neighbors; laughing, playing, loving and living life to the fullest, McCullough said.

McCullough is one of ten artists whose border art can be seen through the rest of the year at El Ojito Center for Creativity, 340 N. 4th Ave. The exhibit is called “The Hearts Path: Border Art From The Migrant Trail.”

Ultimately, McCullough lives her life promoting humanitarian aid and international hospitality because her children travel a lot and she likes to believe there are other people out there who would do the same for her children as she would do for someone else's.