Unique Southwest Art for Your Home

I took 3 years of art and mechanical drafting in high school, and some art classes in college, but the truth is, I am mostly self-taught. I did very little art until 1983 when I was living in San Antonio, Texas. One day, out of curiosity, I went into a small stained glass shop and before I left, I had signed up for a stained-glass class.  I fell in love with it and a few months later turned my garage into a glass studio. I worked on glass almost every evening after getting home from working my regular job. Over the next 7 years, I designed and built hundreds of stained glass art projects of all types and soon developed a reputation for creating quality art glass. 

In 2018, I took some boxes of old papers outside and put them in the trash. When I came back in, I found a piece of paper that had fallen out of one of the boxes. I picked it up, looked at it and, had an “AHA moment” that changed the entire direction of my life.  On the paper was a drawing of a Navajo woman I had drawn 38 years earlier but had misplaced it. I believe finding the drawing at this time in my life was not an accident, it was “providence”. Proverbs 16:6 says “a man’s heart plans his way, but it is the Lord who directs his path”. 

When I drew it, I was a stained glass artist living in San Antonio, Texas. I was in a failing marriage that I couldn’t fix and, to tell you the truth, at that time in my life, I could have cared less what Proverbs had to say to me. But, no matter, in the worst moments of my life, even when I chose the wrong direction, I know I was being gently re-directed toward the right path.  

In 2018 I wasn’t a painter, I wasn’t even doing stained glass. Now I see the drawing was a signpost pointing to the right path. I felt compelled to paint the Navajo woman on my drawing, which I did and have continued to paint Navajo, Pueblo, and Spanish women of the American Southwest. In September of 2021, I was asked by the best gallery in Old Town Albuquerque, for nine of my paintings to sell in their gallery. I know this is the right “path” for me to take and I will continue to walk down it until directed to chose another.

Without a doubt, it is the late Navajo Abstract Artist R. C. Gorman. His paintings of Navajo women dressed in their traditional long velvet dresses, distinctive hair buns, and turquoise jewelry are easily recognizable and coveted by collectors. They demonstrate the quiet grace and dignity of the working Navajo women who live their lives in a dry and, unforgiving land yet are still more than able to provide for the needs of their families. People often say my paintings are reminiscent of his even though our painting styles are very different.

I did not quit doing stained glass; I now choose only to do around two projects a year. The reason for this is that cutting and assembling a glass project has become more physically demanding for me, but painting isn’t. I also will collaborate with other artists to help them create a special design for their project.