New Mexico Arts & Crafts Fair

Fair Jurors

2010 Jurors

TIM GIFFORD has a great appreciation for bronze sculpture and began working with this remarkable art medium when he created his first sculpture in January of 2000. Born in Espanola, New Mexico and recently retired from a Colorado fire service career, Gifford returned home to Albuquerque to capture the imagery and energy that New Mexico offers as his gallery of work continues to grow. He has shown his work throughout Colorado over the years and most extensively at the “Loveland Sculpture Invitational,” recognized as the largest outdoor sculpture show in the nation. His work can currently be seen at the Nob Hill Art Gallery on Montgomery.

JUDITH RODERICK was a Painting and Design major at Carnegie Tech and the University of Michigan, and has been a dedicated and diverse artist ever since. A long-time NM resident, she created award-winning Batiked clothing and quilts in the 1970s, started Silk-Painting in the early 80’s when she began teaching hundreds of people to Silk-Paint out of Village Wools (which she owned for 10 years), out of her studios, and at Ghost Ranch. She had a long and illustrious Wearable-Arts Career in the 1980s and 1990s, when participated in the NMACF for many years, serving on the Board and as a Juror. She is currently focused on Avian Art, depicting mostly Sandhill and Whooping Cranes, on Silk-Painted Scarves and Quilts, in Watercolor, and Artist Books.

LISA TANNENBAUM started snapping digital photos in 1998 with a Sony Mavica, and has been engrossed in photographing her adopted state of New Mexico ever since. Her photos have appeared in New Mexico Magazine, Albuquerque Arts Magazine, The Albuquerque Journal, and at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History. She has taught photography, Photoshop and Photoshop Elements classes at UNM's Division of Continuing Education since 2002, and is the coauthor of textbooks about Photoshop Elements.

LAUREN TOBEY moved to Albuquerque, NM in 1998 to attend the University of New Mexico and began working as a bench jeweler in 2001. She began showing her work at Albuquerque’s Mariposa Gallery in 2006, which led to representation in other galleries in various states. In 2006 Tobey also opened Meltdown Studio, a jewelry school/studio which not only offers classes, but provides an open studio and workspace for other artists to use. The space has created a community of artists who are interested in teaching, learning, and sharing techniques within the field of small metals and jewelry.

ERNEST WILMETH received his BFA from Northern Arizona University in 1976. He started showing professionally in 1977 and has participated in over sixty juried and invitational shows both regionally and nationally. His work has been published in various newspapers and books including the Phoenix Gazette, Albuquerque Journal, American Art Collector, Ceramics Monthly and Abstract Art from the New Mexico Artists Series. He is listed in Who's Who In American Art, Who's Who In the West and holds life membership to Great Britain's Royal Society of Art. He served on the boards of The Southwest Arts Festival and Magnifico as well as their Standards Committee and Visual Arts Committee respectively. His work is in private and public collections across the United States and parts of Canada and Europe.

2009 Jurors

DONNA LORAINE CONTRACTOR was born in Illinois and moved to Albuquerque twenty years ago. She currently uses tapestry as her medium and has won over twenty art competitions and commissions through many Public Art Programs. Contractor’s tapestries can be seen and purchased at Mariposa Gallery, Albuquerque Museum Gift Store Gallery, Tapestry Galley in Madrid and the Weaving Southwest Gallery in Taos. Outside of the state her work can be seen at Es Posible Gallery in Phoenix, Arizona. As a tapestry artist since 1989 Contractor has run an Apprenticeship Program at her Nob Hill studio. She has previously served as both a board member and juror of the New Mexico Arts and Crafts Fair. She also served on the selection committee for the Public Art sculpture, “Serpentina” located at the Albuquerque International Airport and regularly donates her tapestries for benefit shows.

LEROY PEREA has been a professional photographer for the past thirty-seven years and is a native of Albuquerque. He has been involved with nearly all aspects of photography including fine art, portrait, scientific and commercial. For the past two years he has been teaching photographic lighting, fine art photography and competition image critique in Albuquerque. Perea has judged the EXPO New Mexico event off and on for the past twenty years. His involvement in the professional photography community also consists of serving as President of the Imaging Photographers of the Southwest, President of the Albuquerque Guild of Professional Photographers and on the board of Directors for the Professional Photographers of New Mexico. He has received numerous awards including the coveted Professional Photographers of America National Award for Meritorious Contributions to Professional Photography.

SANDRA LEA QUINLAN was born in Detroit, Michigan and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She began her art studies in New York and since returning to Albuquerque has studied with many of the country’s leading water media artists. Working mainly in watermedia, a combination of watercolor, ink, acrylic, and some charcoal, often with the addition of collage weaving in and out of the paintings, she tries to convey her love of the Southwest, not in a realistic but in an emotional way. Quinlan’s paintings have been exhibited throughout the Southwest and are in private collections in the United States, Europe, Canada, and Japan. She is affiliated with the Yucca Gallery in Albuquerque’s historic Old Town. Quinlan has been involved with the NMACF since its inception and has participated in numerous NMACF shows. She has served as a board member and Standards Chairperson.

KEITH SMITH started his career as a professional potter in 1982 as a production potter working for several different production potteries in New Mexico. Wanting to gain more knowledge about the raku process and to expand his throwing skills beyond the realm of functional ware, Smith apprenticed with New Mexico potter and clay supplier Martin Butt. After a year focusing on developing unique glaze formulas and throwing large forms, Smith opened Two Moons Pottery. By 1990, his raku work was exhibited in twenty-two galleries throughout New Mexico and the United States. His work was also represented in galleries internationally in Copenhagen, Tokyo and Sydney. By the mid-1990’s, Smith was traveling both nationally and internationally to give demonstrations, lectures and to teach raku techniques and the skills necessary to throw large forms. Smith now focuses on creating unique forms and sculptures and is always expanding the color palette of his glazes.

NANCY YOUNG works in cast paper that she makes herself from cotton fibers. She casts this material into molds that she conceives and creates. For the past thirty years trips to remote areas have enriched her knowledge and impressions of man and his land. Her work is an empathetic interpretation of the landscapes and images that have been left by past and present cultures. Young also creates mixed media works that are contemporary in flavor while having the patina of antiquity. These two and three-dimensional pieces have the subtly elegant appearance of aged metal while reflecting impressions of time immemorial. Since 1975, she has placed in over forty-six regional, national and international juried exhibits, receiving Best of Show, multiple First Place and Purchase Awards. Selected commissions include IBM, AT&T, American Express, and commissions for American Embassies in Venezuela and New Guinea through the U.S. Department of State.