Featured Artist
Doreen Garten
Please introduce yourself and describe your background
What is your earliest memory of creating art?
As a child, I would hide in a closet shared with my sisters and parents, sketching on the backs of receipts because we couldn’t afford paper. Using farm receipts as my canvas didn’t exactly endear me to my parents though but I could capture or at least attempt to capture what I visualized in my brain.
Describe your primary medium and why you’ve chosen it for your artwork
Having collected stones for 40 plus years and in the past 10 years, began attending metalsmithing courses with various local instructors. The first instructor was truly gifted in sharing silversmith techniques to a novice such as myself. That’s where I became hooked!
Jewelry as a medium: It’s mind blowing to blend a fusion of sculpture and contemporary design inspired by movement and balance into asymmetrical silhouettes along with balancing gemstones (for example, a red riding hood pendant)!
What other media have you used?
I’m not sure I truly “learned” to paint while recovering from losing the ability to walk and use my hands a few years back. But as I regained movement, a paintbrush was placed in my hands, and I eventually discovered just how fun painting can be. Don’t worry—I won’t inflict my artwork on you! I simply enjoy getting lost in the mesmerizing flow of paint.
What inspires your work?
Like many jewelers, I find inspiration in my environment that is in nature, architecture, and art. In addition, some of my most compelling ideas come in the middle of the night—I often wake up, sketch a design, and go back to sleep.
If you could spend the day with any artist, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
Robert ‘Bob’ Lyman, curator for the “Hope Diamond” in the Natural History Museum of the Smithsonian. I think it was in the 1960’s when Bob designed hinges on the prongs of the “Hope Diamond” setting without the aid of a computer and/or a CAD program. He was truly a master jeweler. Bob did things that jewelers can’t do today!
Do you show your work commercially? If so, where?
Yes, I’ve been given the opportunity to exhibit at galleries in Arizona and New Mexico and at art shows in neighboring states as well as in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Chicago and of course, New Mexico.
What is something most people don’t know about you?
I’m certain that it comes at no surprise that I studied architecture. But at the time, I was the only female allowed in the class of males and required my parents’ written permission. We’ve come a long way baby!
What advice would you offer younger artists just beginning their art careers?
Become an accountant. Just kidding! Breaking into jewelry design is challenging but absolutely doable. Work towards mastering the craft while building a strong portfolio with your unique style. While gaining experience don’t forget to take time to networking within the industry. But more importantly, have fun along the way!
All Featured Artists
Doreen Garten
Please introduce yourself and describe your background What is your earliest memory of creating art? As a child, I would hide in a closet shared with my sisters and parents, sketching on the backs of receipts because we couldn’t afford paper. Using farm receipts as my...
Christopher Miller
Please introduce yourself and describe your background Upon retiring 10 years ago from a career as a newspaper reporter and communications manager at Sandia National Laboratories, I focused on my art full time. I had first learned to paint with oils in the mid-1990s...
David Pagani
Please introduce yourself and describe your background My name is David Pagani and I’m a representational painter and draftsman. I earned a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and have been an award-winning commercial artist (illustration,...
Bill Sabatini
Please introduce yourself and describe your background Originally from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, I was fortunate to have my artistic talent recognized and supported my family and teachers. At an early age I knew I wanted to be an architect. I attended a small liberal...
Carol Mell
Please introduce yourself and describe your background My name is Carol Mell. I have been a choreographer, writer, humorist, storyteller, photographer and painter of the American West. My motto has long been, “Follow the Dirt Road in Your Soul.” What is your earliest...
Carolyn Berry
Please introduce yourself and describe your background I grew up in Kansas but have lived in Ohio, Minnesota, Denver and Alberta, Canada before moving here four years ago. As a high school teacher in Lawrence, KS, I have experience in numerous art disciplines but...
Janet Bothne
Please introduce yourself and describe your background My love of art goes back to my childhood where I was given much encouragement and space to explore creativity. Over the years, I’ve explored many mediums and styles ranging from fastidious realism in oils, pastels...
Fran Krukar
Please introduce yourself and describe your background My name is Fran Krukar and I’m a watercolorist. As a Military wife, I took art and college classes in many places, graduating from the University of New Mexico in 1980. Some years later, I took watercolor classes...
Beth Larsen
Please introduce yourself and describe your background I’m from the Midwest but made my way to New Mexico a few years after college. I instantly loved New Mexico’s culture, land, and climate. For many years, I worked in marketing but became very interested in the...
Paul Rodenhauser
Please introduce yourself and describe your background Creative expression has become a way of life since my arrival in New Mexico sixteen years ago. I was fortunate to have already retired from my academic position at Tulane University School of Medicine when...
Bill Monthan
I have been admiring art since early childhood. My father was a commercial artist and photographer. My mother was an author and editor. Both were in the advertising field in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills in my early years. The crowd that they surrounded themselves...
Pauline Eaton
A Corrales Treasure: Pauline Eaton, Artist, 1935-2021 Pauline Eaton's Credo as an Artist… from “CRAWLING TO THE LIGHT” “Only one who has a personal religion, a unique view of the universe, can be a true artist. “-- Friedrich Schlegel “The purpose of life is spiritual...
Martha Rajkay
Please introduce yourself and describe your background Born in Hungary I come from a family of artists. I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, Masters in Art Therapy and a Masters in Social Work. I have been a photographer, commercial graphic artist and painter for...
Pat Kirby
Please introduce yourself and describe your background All children, except one, grow up. Spoiler alert. Me, Pat Kirby. I’m the one that didn’t grow up. Okay, so the real answer is Peter Pan, but spend five minutes with me and it’ll be obvious that emotional maturity...
Roger Green
Please introduce yourself and describe your background My initial emotional and cultural influences began as I was growing up on the North Side of Chicago. I lived in a nest of apartment buildings laced with narrow gangways and ever-rising brick walls, that kept the...
Sandra Lapham
I am a retired physician who specialized in internal medicine, with a focus on addiction medicine. In 1996 I formed a not-for-profit research center in Albuquerque that studied behavioral health and tested new medications to treat alcohol and drug use disorders....
Barbara Clark
Please introduce yourself and describe your background I am a painter who loves the outdoors and is grateful to get to do what I love. I am grateful because I understand what it is to get in the car every morning and talk myself into one more day of the daily grind. ...
Rick Snow
Please introduce yourself and describe your background I was raised as an “army brat” all over the world. I graduated with a degree in organic chemistry, physics and math, then immediately joined the Army. After serving for 20 years, I retired and began working as a...
Jennifer Noel
Hello, my name is Jennifer Noel, I am 43 years old and I was born and raised in Socorro NM. Both of my parents are Geologists who work at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. I imagine it was a bit of a shock to both of my parents to have a daughter who...
Urey Lemen
Please introduce yourself and describe your background. My father was in the Navy so for the first twenty years of my life our family bounced around the world. I got my love of photography from Dad who was always taking family pictures. Like many my age, my first...
Victoria Mauldin
Describe your primary medium and describe why you’ve chosen it for your artwork. I work almost exclusively in acrylics. I have gravitated to acrylics as my preferred medium because they work well with my style of painting, which is often light to dark, light to dark,...
Ivana Starcevic
In memoriam 1955-2024 Please introduce yourself and describe your background. I was born and raised in Belgrade, Serbia, and moved to New Mexico in 1989. While enjoying a 20-year career as the Creative Director for a Fortune 500 company focused on...
Barbara Burzillo
“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set it free” --Michelangelo Describe your primary medium and describe why you’ve chosen it for your artwork. When I began sculpting I experienced an immediate familiarity, a palpable sensation that I had done it...
L. BaLoMBiNi
I don’t have a primary medium to work in. I’ve been a potter, weaver, jeweler, sculptor, painter in my life and I will choose materials that fit the thought. Right now acrylics are fast, easy and available. I have a BFA in Ceramics and Fiber Arts. Painting came later...
Gail Grambling Harrison
Describe your primary medium and describe why you’ve chosen it for your artwork I am a fused glass artist. I love the ability to design and discover outcomes. I enjoy the fact that glass has a mind of its own and often, there are surprises when I open the kiln. I love...
Krysteen Waszak
Describe your primary medium and describe why you’ve chosen it for your artwork. My primary medium is oil painting on canvas with a focus on beginning my paintings outdoors on location, ‘en plein air’. I enjoy the extra challenges of ever-changing light and conditions...
Ken Duckert
In memoriam Ken Duckert 1944-2024 Describe your primary medium and describe why you’ve chosen it for your artwork. Since having a Brownie Box camera as a boy, I’ve been interested in photography. I had an opportunity to extend that interest and start working in...
Jude Rudder
“If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint.” – Edward Hopper Background & Technique Eighteen years ago while hiking in the Sandias, my husband asked me, “What are you going to do now?” I had just retired and had been thinking I needed a new...
Amy M. Ditto
"You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." -Mark Twain Background & Technique In a profile I provided Shadow & Light Magazine a couple of years back, I began by stating that I haven't always been an artist. But, that isn't really...