Ellis West Gallery

• National Hispanic Cultural Center, Permanent Collection, Albuquerque, NM, 2006
• Albuquerque Sunport Permanent Collection, Albuquerque, NM, 2001
• Carnegie-Mellon University Permanent Collection, Pittsburgh, PA., 1998
• Collection of Salvadore Scarpitta, New York, NY, 1989
• Collection of Dr. Leslie King Hammond, Baltimore, MD, 1989

Publications:

• The Magazine, September 1990, “New Abstractions: Chante Series,” review by David Clemmer.
• Pasatiempo, August 1993, “A Bridge Between Cultures,” by Gussie Fauntleroy.
• Shipment of Mute Fate, by L. Crutchfield, McDougal, Littell, & Co., 1993, “Echar Luz Sobre Mis Raices,” used as illustration.
• Art in America, March 1992, review of “Zip-Locked Sanctuary” at Massachusetts College of Art by Ann Wilson Lloyd.
• New Art, Harry Abrams Publishing, Inc, May 1990.

Education:

• Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
Master of Fine Arts, Painting. May 1989.
Master of Art, Teaching. May 1987.

• University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM.
Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art. May 1982.

Artist Statement:

I am most interested in the remnants of information from the past that give us clues about who we are and where we came from. The stories relating to a long forgotten or undiscovered ancestor and the adventures and hardships they must have endured spur my imagination and lead me to paint.

I use the landscape of my childhood as a starting point for my paintings. Remote villages and towns in Northern New Mexico such as Trampas, Sombrillo, Truchas, and Chimayo are the catalysts for a broad and expressive vocabulary. I envision each painting as a small plot of land; scarred by drilling, sanded down to reveal inner layers of texture and colors, and reflecting a personal memory of what was once an agriculturally-centered family dynamic. The questions of what and who defines beauty and what and who is valued are a main concern of my work. The contrast of the ugly, eroded, and ignored next to beauty, wealth, and the celebrated are revealed and displayed. I have purposely created work on found supports, incorporating castoff material such as wood and plaster to create a base on which to paint. In each painting I have intentionally left segments raw and unrefined next to what I consider are moments of beauty – unadulterated brush marks, intense colors, juxtaposition of varied textures, and shapes reflective of nature and man.

In addition, I am intrigued and moved by the mythology of this region; the idea of Northern New Mexico as being one of the places of the mythological birthplace of the Aztecs, Aztlan, is a fascinating concept. I add this concept of migration to the parameters of my work – we are all in a state of flux from one place to another, one world to another.

Notions that the conquistadors brought with them, the lands of Copola and Quivira, and other cities of gold with unforeseen wealth there for the taking, have inspired my use of these places for my titles. I have melded history, mythology, color, and emotion to better reflect the realities of these places in this time. In doing so, I strive to expose the many dichotomies that I witness in this particular landscape. The juxtapositions between the have’s and the have not’s, the educated and the isolated, the loss of cultural identity to convenience, and ultimately the loss of one’s history through neglect are not easily recognized by someone unfamiliar with these places, but all are living, breathing elements in my work.

In a way, I am sure these works will not even register a blip on the radar screens of the landscape that I have chosen to depict, and perhaps that is the greatest testimony to these pockets of once hidden, remote outposts of “civilization”; change is slow, and for better or worse we are all still outsiders. I am lucky enough to be part of two very different worlds and privileged to record their places in time.