LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The Doña Ana Arts Council will showcase The Border Artists in Blue Skies Dec 3-29, 2021. Patrons will see art representing a diversity of materials, narratives, perspectives, and experiences reaching beyond the challenges of 2020.
The Border Artists organization was formed in the late 1980s to increase visibility and recognition for artists in southern New Mexico. Finding much success, the group continued to add members with diverse backgrounds and organized as a non-profit association in 1995. All members are residents of New Mexico and El Paso, and they exhibit locally and nationally in juried shows.
Photographers Emmitt Booher, Storm Sermay, and David Sorenson are all well-known in the region. Booher was the first artist selected for the artist-in-residence for the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument in 2016.
In 2013, Sorenson was Artist-in-Residence at the Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery in Queensland, in conjunction with an international exchange exhibition between galleries in Las Cruces and Queensland.
Sermay’s work has been shown in the El Paso International Airport, and she is known for her work in black and white.
The exhibition will also feature the work of painters Tauna Cole, Sherry Doil-Carter, Cassandra Lockwood, Rosemary McLoughlin, Jo-an Smith, Zoe Spiliotis, Nolan Winkler, and Jean Wilkey.
Cole, a local artist, and professor at NMSU, often uses metaphors and symbolism to reflect self, identity, and family.
Doil-Carter, an Art teacher at Alma D’Arte Charter High School, uses collage, printmaking, sculpture, mixed media, and painting to create her work.
Lockwood, was also selected for the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument Artist in Residence for May 2018.
After recent vision loss McLoughlin is back creating vibrant paintings and exhibiting again. “With my recent vision loss, I am now on a new journey,” said McLoughlin.” I am hopeful that in this new way of seeing it will be a journey of discovery and of painting whatever life may inspire.”
After her recent retrospective show in the gallery, Smith will show more work inspired by the region’s rich colors, textures, and shapes. El Paso Artist and Community College Art Professor, Spiliotis has created public artworks and murals in New Mexico, Texas, and Pennsylvania. Her work is based on mathematical principles, and she explores color relationships and patterns.
“I am a painter, I am not a mathematician, yet my intuition and aesthetic sense have led me to explore patterns and shapes that have an underlying mathematical logic,” said Spiliotis.
Winkler’s work can be found in many collections, including the Governor’s Collection in the Santa Fe Round House, internationally known artist Sol and Carolyn LeWitt, The Four Seasons Hotels and Spas, Hilton Hotels, and many more throughout the world. She has won numerous artist in resident fellowships across the county and shows work at the Rio Bravo Fine Art Gallery in Truth or Consequences, NM.
Wilkey, a New Mexico State graduate and gallery owner, combines objects and elements from nature in ways you might not normally expect.
Janice Cook, a full-time potter for fifty years, works in porcelain, enjoying the choreography of her shapes and the colors of the slips and stains she uses to decorate.
Amanda Jaffe also works with porcelain and draws inspiration from the landscape and culture of New Mexico and Montana. Her relief porcelain wall tiles are frequently abstract with landscape references and contain ceramic objects, including boats, flowers, and leaves.
Suzanne Kane is inspired by unusual seeds and structural plants that endure and survive in the Southwest. Her work often reflects resilience, persistence, toughness, durability, tenacity, and adaptability of nature.
Clay artists Terry Wolfe will also participate in the show.
Linda Elkins, one of the group’s mixed media artists, is guided by an intuitive creation process, and her work includes handmade books and journals.
Jeanne Rundell began painting 12 years ago, creating wild, brightly colored teapots known as Dysfunctional Teapots. Today she is known for her wildly colorful contemporary paintings of farm equipment.
Margaret Berrier rounds up the group exhibition with jewelry. She became fascinated by archeology and nature and has studied the ancient cultures of Central America and the Southwest for almost twenty-five years. She utilizes her fascination with these cultures and nature to create pieces that have “layers” to the images she is incorporating.
The Doña Ana Arts & Cultural Center and DAAC administrative offices are located at 250 W. Amador, Las Cruces, NM, and open Monday through Friday 9-5 and on the second Saturday of every month 12-5. Please visit www.daarts.org or call the DAAC office at 575-523-6403 for additional information.