Gallery With A Cause • Located in the New Mexico Cancer Center • Benefitting the NMCC Foundation
Please call gallery director Regina Held to arrange a private gallery tour, make a purchase, or ask any questions.
Biography
I was born in Dayton, Ohio but we moved often because my father was military. I grew up in Florida, then moved to Ohio for high school and my first years of college. I came to New Mexico in 1976, grew to love the desert and consider it my true home.
I attended the University of New Mexico, earning my BFA in Studio Arts and MA in Art Education. I taught for twenty years in New Mexico schools. My teaching career was a gift which allowed me to practice my skills, keep current with trends and ideas, research artists and art history and best of all, to share art with the students.
After retiring from teaching, I did personal training and taught fitness, a good fit for one who has always loved being active. Now I focus on my art practice, painting, drawing, ceramics and mixed media. Just like my childhood self, I love spending hours making things.
Artist Statement
As an oil painter creating realistic still lifes, I am drawn to the beauty of images from nature and objects from everyday life. As a child growing up in southern Florida, I was immersed in a tropical world, a fertile environment providing an endless array of life bursting forth from every niche – a joy for a nerdy kid fascinated with all manner of insects, animals and plants. The way light strikes a form, the color it reveals, and the shadow it creates is a delightful surprise, endlessly fascinating.
Life forms from nature and everyday objects stand in for state of mind, for points along life’s journey. A shell once home to a living creature, now tossed and worn by the sea, is evidence of a life begun, lived, ended. Objects used by people, clothing, furniture, tools, toys are transformed over time through use and wear, imbued with history and energy, taking on characteristics of their owners. Perhaps passed on or discarded, they continue their travel through time, becoming metaphors for people. The vignettes I create in my work have a significance beyond arrangement for interest and beauty. I find deep meaning in the artifacts left on this earth. They are reminders of the spirituality in nature, the awareness of the natural order and the power of the universe: birth / death, the life cycle, transformation over time, renewal and impermanence. From the planets in space to the individual life, from the translucent casing of the dragonfly nymph to grandmother’s rosary, my art reflects the way I view the world, with a sense of wonder, bemusement and humor.