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
We moved to New Mexico when I was eleven years old. I studied for two years at the University of New Mexico and the two years at TVI (now CNM) where I received a certificate of completion for Commercial Printing. I met my husband while going to school and married him after I graduated from TVI. We lived in Los Alamos where we both worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. I worked as a graphic artist for 30 years, using computers to produce posters, presentations and publications.
I received my BS degree while working full time via a mail correspondence school in Minneapolis, Minnesota. My degree was in Theology and Early Childhood Education. It was also during my working years that I was diagnosed with Multiple Scleroses. I retired with disability from the Laboratory in 2012.
Both of my parents died of cancer, my mother of lung cancer and my dad of liver cancer. My mom was diagnosed with stage 4 in January of 2001 and lived only until April. My father was diagnosed some 20 years after my mother passed. The Doctors said they had never seen anyone with numbers as high as my father’s. He died rather quickly after treatment barely moved his numbers at all.
Both my husband and I are retired now in Rio Rancho where we live in our dream home and where I have my art studio. My passion is working in Pastels and have been taking classes and workshops to elevate my skills in this wonderful medium. I have also met and made wonderful friends in the art community here in Albuquerque.
Artist Statement
After working on computers for so many years, working with my hands has proved very satisfying and amazing! I enjoy seeing the wonderful colors come alive as I paint. I really love how the pastels enable me to paint and draw at the same time. I am learning all the time as I choose to work several hours each day. I also have accepted that not everything I create turns out as I envisioned. For me, exploring and growing as an artist is a lifetime journey. It is rewarding to work on portraits because they are challenging, and it is fun to see the face come alive with the colors I choose, and the likeness emerge as I continue to add marks. I also paint animals, landscapes and the occasional still life. I paint animals for their personalities, and the New Mexico landscape for its incredible natural diversity! For me, continuing to learn and grow as an artist is key to being satisfied with the end results.
