Aspen Vista

In addition to her landscape and wildlife photography, Corinna Stoeffl has been experimenting with abstract photography. This piece, "Aspen Vista" is an example of the multiple exposure feature of her Nikkon Camera. This was a straight shot, the multiple images were made inside the camera. Nikkon is the only camera that has this feature.

Art gives hope to Lara Sandling-Bennett

15 years ago, after seeing dozens of doctors, Lara Sandling-Bennett was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. "It's a very depressing syndrome," she said. "I couldn't work anymore. I felt lost because of the pain."

But in 2007 she took steps that would change her life. With the encouragement of friends, she started taking classes at the UNM-Los Alamos, and is working toward earning her studio art degree.

She comes from an artistic family, and has done a lot of arts and crafts in her life. But when she took her first painting class, taught by Patrick Harris, she learned some wonderful things about herself.

The first assignment was to "paint your ideal outdoor space." She did her painting "my secret window," which is now on display along with 15 of her other paintings in building 2 at the UNM-LA campus. She said, "I was shocked and surprised that I had that artistic ability in me."

"While I paint everything goes away. Stress. Pain. With all the other arts and crafts that I've done, I've never had that experience. I call it my Zen Moment. I lose all track of time and everything seems right."

Lara thinks that painting has an especially mediative effect on her because she enjoys working with the colors, and she said, "as I paint, I'm giving someone else a glimpse of how I see the world. I can express all the things that most people take for granted. A beautiful landscape. Or my cat. It just takes everything else away."

She has found the teachers in the UNM-LA art department to be inspirational and supportive. Patrick Harris encouraged her to enter the Impressionism exhibit at the Fuller Art Center and two of her pieces were selected.

She has made other opportunities for herself by following her heart. You can see from her paintings that she has a passion for cats. "One of the cats that I had helped me get through my diagnosis with Fibromyalgia."

To commemorate her special pet she joined the Friends of the Shelter, an organization that makes sure that cats and dogs in the Los Alamos Animal Shelter are being taken care of. The Friends help screen for potential adopters and help the shelter maintain an unwritten no-kill policy. The only animals that are euthanized are are truly beyond medical help.

Because of her involvement with that organization she will be painting two murals for the new shelter, that is scheduled to be completed in November 2009. There will be a social room where people can get to know cats and dogs to see if they connect before deciding to adopt.

"Art has given me hope," she said. "And a chance to show others that there's hope - a chance for a new life no matter what disease you may have."

Corinna Stoeffl explores her the beauty of her backyard

I was raining when I visited Corinna Stoeffl. The road was already slick with mud and I wondered if I would get out, or would a flash flood trap me there. The weather showed me how her Abiquiu home is the perfect place for a landscape and wildlife photographer to live. I wanted to pull over to capture the way the stormy clouds made the red rocks look different from every angle. I wasn't the only one. Greedy photographers walked along the highway, hoping to catch a glimpse from an angle that no one else has seen, or for the clouds to highlight the curves in a new way.

Most of Corinna's photos are taken in Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado, but she first got serious about taking pictures in the summer of 2004 when she had a chance to go to South Africa. She bought a good camera and made it her goal to take some pictures for herself that she could be proud of.

As it turned out, she took some great pictures, and began to sell her photographs in art fairs the following summer. Photography became her main focus. She joined a mentorship program at the Santa Fe Photographer's Workshop "I didn't want, ten years from now, to look back and wish that I had done something."

She looked out at the threatening weather and said, "Later on I may just get in the car and just shoot."

She usually shoots two or three times a week. There's a big difference between how she approaches her work when she's traveling and when she's at home. When she travels, she looks for things that catch her eye, but there is a sense that it's now or never.

But when she's at home she goes to the same places, over and over again to explore the changes. The creek behind her house is one of her favorite places. She likes to capture how the rocky bed of the creek will become murky when there is a flash flood. She said, when you go to familiar places, "you get to know it and keep discovering new things."

She has a deep connection with nature. In an interview in the Rio Grande Sun, she said, "I tend to see details in nature that are interesting to me and often have difficulty in capturing them to my liking." It is in her visits to familiar places that she can experiment with things to try to make it work, and see what she can change.

One of the hardest lessons that she has learned is: "Never leave home without your camera!"

Every Sunday Corinna sells her work at the Community Fair at the Farmers Market in Santa Fe. She will participate in the 2009 Abiquiu Studio Tour, October 10-12, and she will have a solo show in the Fuller Lodge Portal Gallery March 26th through May 2010.

Slow Down Enough to See God

Has the beauty of the natural world ever made you feel closer to God? The sun shining through leaves like stained glass. A deer looking you right in the eye. A soul expanding landscape. You imagine what Heaven is like. You feel exhilarated. At peace. You try to savor the moment by snapping a picture…

…But when the picture is developed it doesn’t look a thing like you remembered! It’s flat and boring. The feeling you had when you were actually standing there is lost.

Michelle Stump’s images are what most people wish they could have captured. Her digital art spreads a sense of peace by showing the sacredness of the earth. “God shows us the other side, but not many people slow down enough to see it.”

To show me what she’s talking about, Michelle had me drive five miles per hour down a dirt road in El Rancho past quaint old estate walls, quirky artistic neighborhoods, the perfect view of Black Mesa, and the trickle of the Rio Grande that keeps the rose bushes lush.

“I believe the place calls to you. You can hear or feel a place beckoning.”

I recognized the fence from her picture, Perfect Pasture, where the horses just came up to her while the setting sun warmed the barrancas in the distance. But the place where she took the picture for Cottonwood Arcade was unrecognizable. Someone put in a fence and cut the boughs. “The images are here for an instant, and then they’re gone.”

“Don’t take a picture that’s already been taken.”

Few people can capture the magnitude of the sprawling mesas outside of Los Alamos, but Michelle did in The Rio Grande Rift Valley. Most people take the shot at Anderson Overlook – there’s a place to park your car.

“One morning I took a shot that I don’t think anyone else has taken,” she explained, “from further up the hill.” She then cropped it so there was less sky and more layered cliff. “Cropping really brought the viewer into the picture.”

Stump’s advice for anyone who wants to take better pictures is to learn as much as you can. “You can get really good at Photoshop at a community college photography class,” she said.

To demonstrate her favorite Photoshop techniques, she took a photo of my son, Calvin.

“One thing that makes photographs look more professional is equalizing the lighting,” she said. The equalize feature on Photoshop evenly distributes the brightness values of the pixels. It can be found by selecting Image, Adjustments and Equalize.

In her photo of Calvin, the sunlight behind his head made him look pale. She wanted the viewer to focus on his hand splashing in the water, so she placed points of light where the action was by selecting “Filter,” “Render” and “Lighting Effects.”

Photoshop lets you customize your lighting effects. Michelle adds pink to bring out the flesh tones.
Michelle’s cards and posters are available at the Old Town Card Shop, Papers!, Beeps and www.harpofthespirit.com.


This article was originally published in the July issue of albuquerqueARTS.

Los Alamos Life Drawing Group

Ken Nebel is a local children’s book illustrator and who supports the creativity of other artists by leading the Life Drawing Group.

Artist can use all the support they can get, because, let’s face it, creativity can be elusive.
Whether you’re born a creative person, or you’ve developed your talent through years of hard work, it’s all about practice. Stretching out, letting your hand go loose and your imagination fly.

That’s exactly what happens when the Life Drawing Group meets every Wednesday from 6:30-9:30 pm and Sunday from 10:00 am -3:00 pm. in the room above the Fuller Lodge Gallery. They use the sessions to get something on the page, right now.

There is no time for anxiety or analysis. As soon as the meeting starts they pool their money to pay the model; who takes a seat in the focal point of a semicircle. They prop painting boards and sketchbooks against wooden benches and line up their pencils and paint brushes.

Everything is ready to go. The subject is there. Natural light saturates the room. The CD player is stocked with schmaltzy jazz music, Spanish love songs, “Love Shack,” modern classical music and Mamma Mia.

Nebel sets the timer and the room hums with collective concentration. A paintbrush splashes in a cup. Hands and brushes fly. You can hear the whisper of pencils and charcoal against paper. An artist with a t-shirt spattered with orange paint holds her paintbrush in front of her eyes to check the symmetry of the model’s face.

The models come from all walks of life. Sometimes Ken even asks strangers. “It’s kind of weird asking people from off the street. I also ask my friends when they come to town.”

Actors and dancers are especially good, because they have discipline and their poses come naturally. They’ve had an acrobat/clown who posed nude. The models’ ages range from 13 to 73. They’ve come in from as far as Albuquerque. They’ve had a hippie from Cuba and a breakdancer covered in tatoos, piercings, and tanlines.

“The best thing about new models is that they don’t know if they can hold a pose for a long time and so they’ll try something different,” said Nebel. “Sometimes it actually works.”

There is as much of a variety of artistic approaches as there are models. Gwen, a model, said, “It fascinates me how different I can look through other people’s eyes.”

Some people are faster than others. Moving onto their second or third drawing before twenty minutes are up.

David Delano, who draws caricatures for parties and for companies, uses an elaborate easel that folds down to a wooden box full of half squeezed paint tubes, a can full of brushes. A paper towel roll hangs off the front. He’s captured the bright colors of Gwen’s turquoise dress and red hair.

Someone’s charcoal drawing makes her look older and sadder. Others focus on her bangs cut straight across or her hands, resting on her knees as if inviting someone to draw them.

Kathy Geoffrion Parker has been coming to the group since she was in high school. Back then there were nude models all the time but they had to get their parents to sign a permission slip to go. She said, “Sometimes when the models don’t show up we’ve had to take turns. Five minutes is a long time. It helps us appreciate the models.”

Being creative is like being in a relationship. To make a relationship work, you need to get together often. “It’s good to get together,” said Ken. “So many times I work on my own. Kathy challenges me. She’s gonna make me do 100 hands in a year.”

The life drawing group is getting ready for an exhibition October 16-November 21, called “Life Drawing Sketchbook”. It will be an informal exhibit showcasing work that captures the human form. The entry form is available online at www.artfulnm.org.

“I don’t think there’s ever been a show like this,” said Nebel. “I’ve got to show these people off. They’re awesome!”

To get more information about the Life Drawing Group, become a model, or to get email reminders of the sessions, contact Ken Nebel at kennebel@hotmail.com or 690-1715.

"Recovery to Self Discovery is the Ideal Class for Musicians

Musicians know that stress affects your whole body. Your breathing gets tight. Your fingers clench. Your posture suffers. You might get injured. Your sound suffers.

To play a wind instrument or sing well you need to fill your body with an open relaxed breath. The air is what produces a beautiful tone, what helps them reach the high notes, what supports the ensemble, and makes vibrato warm and the phrases musical.

Whether you sing, play the tuba or play the piccolo, Karen Martinez, or Khushbir Kaur, invites you to her weekly yoga class called “Recovery to Self Discovery.” She believes Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan is ideal for musicians because its strong focus on rhythmic breathing.

Each session combines breath, movement and stretching in a way that targets specific physical, mental and emotional issues and creates the mind-body awareness that you need to play music. The meditation portion develops concentration and makes it easier to change old patterns.

Kundalini Yoga is an ancient technology that has been passed from yogi to yogi in secret through the centuries. In 1969 Yogi Bhajan began teaching those secrets in the West.

Martinez is a Kundalini Research Institute Level One Kundalini Yoga Teacher. She studied many forms of yoga, but turned to Kundalini Yoga as Taught by Yogi Bhajan to relieve her chronic back pain. She said, “It transformed my life. Yoga and meditation allowed me to define myself, to fulfill my myself by focusing on the things I want to achieve, and to act and think at my highest consciousness.”

“Recovery to Self Discovery” can be enjoyed by everyone who wants to increase energy and build physical and mental strength. People who suffer from body aches and pains, or have limited mobility will also be able to participate.

The class is Saturday mornings from 10-11:15 A.M. in the Great Room of the Betty Earhart Senior Center, 1000 Oppenheimer Drive. $15 per class, $54 for a monthly pass and $162 for a three month pass. For more information call 505-753-6686 or 505-927-0768.

The Durango Art Center is awesome!

Quinn Calvin and I just got to Durango, and were headed for the brew pub for a late lunch when we walked past a paint bar at the Durango Art Center.

For $8 an hour we could sit there and paint, and they cleaned up. I was so impressed. It was exactly what we needed after a long drive. So we fitted Calvin with a smock and got him going. Here are the pictures: