Bio etc.
My pastel paintings convey the clear brilliance and intensity of New Mexico’s colorful tones. As an ardent colorist, I love to play with saturated hues to produce vibrant visual effects.
My style and bold compositions are influenced by a solid background in design from Texas Tech University where I received both a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Design Communication) and Master of Arts (Museum Science, emphasis in Modern Art History) degree. There, I later became an art instructor, teaching several upper level design classes while employed as a graphic designer at Texas Instruments.
My paintings have hung in galleries in New York City, Taos, Albuquerque, and Rockwall, Texas. When my kids were young I coordinated the “Art in the Schools” program at Onate elementary school for several years while voluntarily teaching in the classrooms. I’m an Albuquerque native and love to garden, read and fly fish when I can.
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Creating is an immense act of faith and a deep connection to God, the ultimate Creator. As an artist, I give thanks every day that God created light and separated it from the darkness (Genesis 1:3-4) making color possible. “With four simple words, God uttered the brilliant potential of color into being.”1 What an amazing miracle!
Color brings me great joy and I want to pass that joy on to you. “God manifested his goodness in color,”2 which is still visible, even in our fallen world. Our world reflects His extravagantly profuse love of creation through the infinite color variations and combinations of His original palette. Working with this same original palette of colors, I hope my paintings point you back to the Creator who joyfully created this earth and all creatures inhabiting it.
At the same time you may be pointed toward God’s hope for a “new life” through Christ: “So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace.” (2 Corinthians 4:16, The Message) Maybe you will look even further toward a new heaven and earth: “Pay close attention now: I’m creating new heavens and a new earth. All the earlier troubles, chaos, and pain are things of the past, to be forgotten. Look ahead with joy. Anticipate what I’m creating: I’ll create Jerusalem as sheer joy, create my people as pure delight.” (Isaiah 65:17-18, The Message) It is in “pure delight” that the Holy Spirit and I create these pastel paintings. I hope their joy and promise is contagious!
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I have so loved all sense of Him, sweet might
Of color and sound,-
His tangible loveliness and living light
That robes me round.
- John Hall Wheelock, Exile from God
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1 Kimberly Garza, “RGB, CMYK and Joy,” in It Was Good, Making Art to the Glory of God (Square Halo Books, 2nd edition, 2006), 188.
2 Kimberly Garza, “RGB, CMYK and Joy,” in It Was Good, Making Art to the Glory of God (Square Halo Books, 2nd edition, 2006), 189.
