Instructors
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Erika Harding
FOUNDER/ GLASS MOSAIC
I first learned to do mosaics at Ghost Ranch with Kathy Thaden more than 10 years ago. I love the meditative nature of the work, but also really enjoy it as a group activity, drinking wine and chatting with friends as we glue and learn together.
I have gravitated toward using stained glass in my work, and specialize in glass-on-glass mosaic pieces and tables. I collect beads, fused glass pieces, stones and other elements that I can build into my work. I also love mosaicking objects (like a deer skull and an old-fashioned porcelain cast-iron sink!) and building sculptures with glass and mosaic elements incorporated.
One of my favorite things about doing mosaic art is the ongoing learning – from my peers, books, master instructors and my mosaic students. There is so much lovely sharing of ideas and helpful tips among mosaic artists. I am learning to fuse glass and create innovative elements for my mosaics as well!
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Alison Robbenhaar
PET PORTRAITS, KNITTING, COLLAGE
Alison Robbenhaar is a colorist and landscape oil painter. She tries to capture the unique beauty of New Mexico. She specializes in plein air painting and leads painting excursions around Taos and across New Mexico.
She has lived here since 2004, and wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
She will be teaching folks how to make a portrait of their pets at our “date night”events, for students of all ages and abilities.
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Jill Gatwood
MOSAIC
After putting my passion for art in the background for many years, working as an epidemiologist, I am back to working/playing, creating and teaching mosaic art.
Mosaic appeals to me because it is not just viewed, it is participatory. It asks to be experienced and touched (which is why I often get kicked out of museums). It is an ancient art that has permanence.
Some of my favorite mosaic substrates celebrate the iconic beauty and former purposes of household items like rotary telephones and vintage toasters. I once even mosaic tiled a real human skull (I don’t know whose it was…).I love teaching mosaic art to others, especially self-proclaimed non-artists. My classes include: Mosaic Art; Basic and Beyond, Mosaic Birdbaths, Stepping Stones, Coasters and Small African Houses. Many of my previous students have gone on to develop their own creative, unique mosaic styles and I’ve learned a lot from them!
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Sarah McIntyre
PHOTOGRAPHY
Sarah is an award-winning photographer, focused on telling the stories of New Mexico’s people and places.
A lifelong New Mexican, with familial roots in the state spanning generations, her approach to photographic storytelling is informed by her experiences in a place that is truly unlike any other.
Though her photographs engage a variety of themes from the sacred to the secular, Sarah is New Mexico’s premier photographer of historic churches, having long ago lost track of time spent traveling across the state to search out and photograph even the tiniest capillas in the remotest areas.
In addition to Sarah’s work documenting New Mexico’s churches, she leads private photography workshops and classes, and wows her portrait photography clients by freezing time with her camera, capturing special moments for a lifetime.
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Katie Baca
HANDLETTERING, KIDS ART WORKSHOPS
Katie is a life-long artist from East Texas, and has called Albuquerque home for ten years. Her degree in education and childhood development has allowed Katie to serve diverse demographics here in ABQ. These experiences range from TESOL classrooms full of English language learners, developing art programs for children with significant behavioral and mental health needs and accommodations, to teaching at a private school with a diverse population. Katie holds an assortment of endorsements through NMPED, but the one nearest and dearest to her heart is visual arts. As an elementary art teacher, her experience spans the spectrum of artistic mediums. Talent and specialties aside, Katie's main priority and love is to help both children and adults tap into the growth mindset needed to see the creative process through the lenses of curiosity and wonder. The goal of any art teacher is to help students shift paradigms from "I can't", to "I can't....yet!". She truly believes with a solid foundation of the Elements and Principals of Art, anyone can be an artist!
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Rachel Popowcer
PAINTING
Originally from the east coast, Rachel Popowcer is a mixed media oil painter who received her BFA from Carnegie-Mellon University and her MFA at UNM. She has exhibited her work extensively, and has participated in artist residencies such as the Vermont Studio Center.
Her recent paintings and photographic works focus on dealing with the chaos and boundaries inherent in everyday life. Rachel teaches Art Studio classes as part-time faculty at CNM, and other positions have included the UNM Art Department, UNM's Continuing Education Program, The New Mexico Cancer Center, The Harwood Art Center, The Albuquerque Museum, OASIS, and more.
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Alison Thomas
RESIN POURING
Alison’s art style is a free flow of color in both her acrylics and resin paintings and in her fused glass. She uses a mix of acrylic pigments with resin to create abstract fluid flows either on canvas or wood panel.
Alison grew up in Florida but has lived in New Mexico with her husband Scott for over 15 years. She has been a member of The Gallery ABQ for four years. Her work is influenced by the blue-green waters and the beautiful white sand beaches along the Emerald Coast in Florida and by the turquoise and orange colors of New Mexico scenery. You can find her art work at alisonthomasartandglass.com and at thegalleryabq.com.
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Mitch Berg
GLASS FUSING
Mitch Berg is a self-taught, mixed media sculptor and director of Fuego Artspace located in Albuquerque's South Valley.
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Catalina Salinas
EMBOSSED METAL ORNAMENTS, RECYCLED PAPER ART, RIBBON ORNAMENTS
High mountains and indigenous cultures surrounded my childhood; I was born in La Paz, Bolivia. I grew fond of the bright colors and textiles that have inspired my artwork for many years. My continued curiosity for new cultures, language and design led me to pursue a master’s degree in Architecture.
I’ve been promoting art education, incorporating architecture, design concepts and teaching Spanish and Creativity to kids and adults, yet I always find time to keep participating in yearly collectives, regularly donating a portion of my art sales to different charity events, and exhibiting internationally. I’m considered a self-taught artist and experimentation has been by path for learning. I’m a member of the Amapola Gallery in Old town New Mexico, since 2018. My abstract designs incorporate geometrical shapes and patterns based on nature and mathematical components. The beautiful sunsets and landscapes of my New Mexico querido keep inspiring and evolving my art. I use continuous color gradations and textures to help my art pieces move, sometimes creating little optical illusions, sometimes the composition changes according to the orientation of the piece.
I paint the edges of a canvas to extend the design and allow it to be appreciated from different angles. I paint squares and rectangles that resemble the weaving of a textile. If you zoom in on a textile it dissolves into those squares and rectangles, but as you move farther away the composition will tell a story.