Studying Art, much less becoming an artist, was a reality I could not embrace in
my authoritarian family conditioned by Hitler’s view of art until I was completely
independent.
My family came from Germany in 1947 when I was 5 years old and settled in
Alamogordo when my dad became head of White Sands Proving Grounds, as well as a
farmer. While my father continued working for the Pentagon, after 7 years our family
moved every 2 years, Santa Barbara, Cincinnati and finally to Los Angeles, where I
finished my B A and earned an MA from UCLA. After a year at German Universities
(Saarbrueken and Munich) I entered the PhD program in German Literature at U C
Berkeley for 3 years. While I enjoyed studying literature and teaching, I took a “Leave of
Absence” from the program in order to fulfill my deepest desire (to be an artist), which
brought me back to New Mexico and Santa Fe in 1973.
My earliest body of work were Figurative Interiors and Etchings of Santa Fe and
Northern New Mexico. I also became quite successful as a portrait painter, having some
very distinguished clients and a portrait bronze bust of a famous colleague of my father
accepted into the historic branch of the Smithsonian Institute; probably which is why I’ve
been in “Who’s Who in American Art” for over 30 years. In 1988 I had a retrospective at
St. John’s College of both bodies of work A Curator/Critic sent by the New Mexican
(PASA) to the Opening asked to have a private word with me; she told me she would like
to see the hidden intensity in my work come out more directly. While I understood what
she meant, it’s effect on me reminded me of the first (of 2) 'acid trips.’ Ironically I was also
in the middle of a Master Class with Annriette Wyeth, a totally different direction... like
leaving the safety of the swimming pool to jump into the ocean—the danger. The first
body of work (Journey of the Fool), a female Jester allowing me to process my own
experience through art was a success. Later expanding my critique to the greater public
after about 10 years, to my latest body of work, “Collective Folly.”
I continued this encouraging success through 2010. Collectors who bought even my
most challenging works (some as large as 48×90 inches - unusual for egg tempera); I was
a well known Santa Fe artist. The Roswell Museum did a successful solo show for me in
‘99. The director of UNM Los Alamos organized a solo show of my anti war paintings at
the UNMLA gallery. My paintings also found collectors in Berlin and Dresden as well as
the only fine art Biannual in Austria. In 2012, I invited some artist friends to create a co-
op hybrid (perhaps a new art movement?) but after a year I was the lone owner. I enjoyed
it, loving to meet and educate potential collectors. It lasted 10 years—until Covid.
Suddenly there were no collectors so I wrote a book: Walking Home—a Memoir of Life
and Art published by Sunstone Press.