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.
Once I was a poet. Wrote, published, occasionally got paid (but usually not), read my work at the New Mexico Writers’ Conference with Rudy Anaya, Joy Harjo, Tony Hillerman, and other writers, most if not all of whom were substantially better. For decades, people would ask me why I wrote poetry, and I would shrug and tell them “because I need to.” Then, one day I didn’t need to anymore. 30 or 40 years went by.
One day, I needed to paint. I didn’t know how, but I bought some colored pens and some pastels and drew some pictures. I liked them, so I bought some watercolors and painted some more. I built a tiny unheated, uncooled studio in the garage so that I would stop getting paint on my tables and floors. I bought a smock. Covid appeared, so I stayed home painting, with mixed results and reactions. Each painting was a new lesson that I would post on FB, and my FB friends and strangers would comment and encourage me with ideas. A few started asking to buy paintings that caught their eye.
Nowadays, I usually have paint on my face and in my hair, always on the floor, and occasionally on the dogs. I love painting, though sometimes I have to fight like the devil to get a painting out. Sometimes, it comes out fast and slippery with no effort. Now that Covid is not a looming danger, I am determined to get out there, take a few lessons, and find out what I am doing.
