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 graduated in art from Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia, where I created a special semester to study in Paris, France. I credit this experience with beginning my life-long love and exploration into abstract art. I also studied photography at a community college in Northern Virginia. That study led me to creating a business representing award-winning photographers for 15 years in the Washington, DC area.
In 2001 I moved to Albuquerque from the Washington, DC /Northern Virginia area and opened my studio here. In 2003 I had the delightful task of embellishing two Dinosaurs benefitting the New Mexico Museum of Natural History, Dinosaur Jack, a World War II plane and Sir Dollarsaurus, a Victorian Dandy. ALBUQUERQUE THE MAGAZINE named me Best Local Artist in 2007. Later that year I was featured on HGTV’s THAT’S CLEVER showing how to create an asymmetrical mirror frame. That became a class I taught for Women in Creativity month through the Hispanic Cultural Center. I occasionally offer classes in acrylic and gilding techniques. For my 50th college reunion I was invited to participate in a show at Hunt Gallery with another alumnae. For this, I created a new body of work speaking to my appreciation of New Mexico places. I continue working on this.
This is my eighth showing at New Mexico Cancer Center Foundation’s Gallery With a Cause, and I am proud to support the Foundation’s valuable contribution to cancer patients’ healing and recovery.
Artist Statement
Abstract art is a perfect fit for me because I am fascinated by the interplay between outer-world physical properties and inner world of intuition, imagination, and inspiration. I enjoy using a pendulum to check my intuition as a painting evolves, revealing what the art wants to become.
I work with acrylic paint, acrylic mediums, specialty and painted papers and other captivating materials such as metal leaf or mica. I am continually amazed and delighted by the variety of expressions I can explore with these materials. I start by designing a surface, which may be a single panel or an overlaid series of cut-out shapes. I add texture, playing with density, depth, and flow. Then I incorporate elements like color, sponging, metallics, and cut papers which I have collected over the years. Moving from stage to stage, I employ color theory, imagination, intuition, shapes, patterns, textures, and feedback from my pendulum and my husband, Tom. I love experimenting with these elements to see how the layers harmonize and enliven the work.
Throughout, I am experiencing the work as it evolves and allowing the existing work to inform the next step.
When I have created joyfulness and vibrancy in the work, I know I have created an experience I wish to share.
