Note from the Director

by Patricia Cream

December 2022

 We are approaching another year’s end, and I started reflecting on all the wonderful memories I have from 2022. I have been able to travel with family and friends to Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, North and South Carolina, Utah, and Mexico (twice). I saw the wonders of National Parks, the glass creations of Dale Chihuly, the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright; rode on a camel and roller coasters with my grandsons; hiked to a pyramid in San Miguel; toured the Biltmore; and walked the beaches in the Carolinas. I enjoyed spending time with my mother, Sue, and watched her be in awe of the way movies and theaters have changed in twenty years. I watched my great nephew grow from a newborn to a one-year-old. These are all truly amazing memories, but the greatest gift has been spending quality time with our dear family and friends. Every day, I am reminded that life is short, and we are not guaranteed tomorrow. My message for this holiday season and year end is this: Take time to be with your family and friends, tell them you love them every day, and don’t wait until tomorrow.

The December Featured Artists are Amelia (Mellie) Myer (oils) and Dana Millen (acrylics). Mellie is inspired by New Mexico’s landscape, skies, and birds. She began painting seriously in oil about 10 years ago, both miniatures and traditional sizes. In the past few years, she has also begun to paint large abstracts in acrylics. Dana’s inspiration comes from her travels to Africa, Colombia, Mexico, and Greece. Artists who have influenced her work include Emily Carr, Vincent van Gogh, Gustav Klimt, Helen Frankenthaler, Gabriele Munter, and Wassily Kandinsky. She also gets ideas from the natural beauty and light of New Mexico. She works from photos, sketches on a canvas, and then paints with palette knives, brushes, and oil markers.

The Salon Show for December is “Ode to Peace and Joy.” This is an open exhibit for local New Mexico artists producing wall art and three-dimensional works. The gallery is looking for works inspired by iconography from all beliefs and backgrounds that depict the feeling of the holiday season. We want to honor cultural traditions and community. Example: Retablos, folk art, cultural and other devotional artwork. Work will be juried on site on delivery day. The prospectus for the December Holiday Show is online for your review.

The First Friday Artist Reception will be on December 2, 2022, from 4-8 pm. Tractor Brewing will sponsor the alcohol at this event and the gallery will include an assortment of cookies.

Call for Artists: If you are a local artist looking for a Contemporary Fine Arts Gallery to show your art, please go to our website (link below) to get more information about our gallery. The application is online.  If you are interested, please send in your application and we can set up a jury date. 

In the Salon in December

Ode to Peace and Joy

The Gallery ABQ Featured Artists

for December are

Dana Millen and Amelia (Mellie) Myer

Featured Artist for December 2022

Dana Millen (acrylic)

By Linda Weiss

 Dana Millen is one of the Featured Artists at The Gallery ABQ First Friday reception on December 2, 2022, from 5-8:00 pm. The Gallery ABQ provides cookies, and Tractor Brewing sponsors this reception, promising a fun night.

Dana creates to make a difference! She believes in “Tikkun Olam”—healing of the world, and works to pull all of us into a painting. She wants her use of color to impart hope and joy to viewers. For her, art is about connecting with other people, healing, and hopefulness.

Dana’s inspiration comes from her travels to Africa, Colombia, Mexico, and Greece—and from the natural beauty and light of New Mexico. Working from photos, she sketches on a canvas and then paints with palette knives, brushes, and oil markers. Artists who have influenced her work include Emily Carr, Vincent van Gogh, Gustav Klimt, Helen Frankenthaler, Gabriele Munter, and Wassily Kandinsky. Inspired by these artists, she has created her own style of impressionistic/post-impressionistic painting, which becomes abstract, a little surreal, and fun.

Come to The Gallery ABQ on December 2, 2022, from 5-8:00 pm, to meet Dana and the other artists, to pick up one-of-a-kind holiday presents, and to have an enjoyable evening out.

Featured Artist for December 2022

Amelia (Mellie) Myer (oil)

by Linda Weiss

Mellie Myer is one of the Featured Artists at The Gallery ABQ First Friday reception on December 2, 2022, from 5-8:00 pm. This First Friday reception will be sponsored by Tractor Brewing, promising a fun
night. Cookies will also be provided.

Mellie had a varied career in journalism for the Peace Corps in Africa, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the State Department before working for the past 20 years as director of two New Mexico non profit organizations while taking art classes in Albuquerque, painting in pastels and then acrylics. Inspired by the New Mexico landscape, Mellie began painting seriously in oil about 10 years ago, both miniatures and traditional sizes. In the past few years she has also begun to paint large abstracts in acrylics. Her latest passion is plein air painting with oils, and she wants to try plein air painting with pastels.

Inspired by New Mexico’s landscape, sky, and birds, Mellie continues to take art classes to try new media for her paintings. Come to The Gallery ABQ on December 2, 2022, from 5-8:00 pm, to meet Mellie and the
other artists, to pick up some one-of-a-kind holiday presents, and to have a fun evening out.

New Mexico Art League Small Works Show

Amelia (Mellie) Myer will have three paintings in the New Mexico Art League's Small Works Show, an online exhibition. The show runs from December 6 to January 6.

The reception is

Saturday, December 17, 4–6:00 p.m.

Two of the paintings are shown below.

Below left: Autumn Road, oil, 8 x 10"

Below right: O'Keefe Country, oil, 8 x 10"

A note from the newsletter editor, Nancy Schrock.

In December, our Salon Show celebrates the iconography and traditions of the holiday season. One common tradition across cultures this time of year is expressing gratitude for what we have—as Patricia Cream did in her Director's Note. I found the following quote in a recent newsletter from the Center for Action and Contemplation, an organization that is based here in Albuquerque.

Creativity Quote

Each and every morning offers us a chance to start anew, fresh, and to begin again. Each morning when we wake—should we choose to listen—is a message from the Creator to remember the privilege we were given of waking up. It’s a reminder to get up and prepare our self, to honor our self, to go out into the world, to connect with Mother Earth and the hearts of other beings, to inspire and encourage those who cross our paths, and most importantly, to enjoy life.  

—Doug Good Feather

Think Indigenous: Native American Spirituality for a Modern World