Born and raised until the age of six in Matanzas, Cuba, I recall magical moments of sunlight filtering through leafy canopies, and interesting shadows dancing on glowing building facades. The bright, early morning white light of the tropics sifting through brilliant jewel tones of dense foliage and flowers are images carried in my mind forever! Looking back it seems even then my childhood art involved light and nature. These have resonated deep in my spirit since I can remember.

This early bond I developed with the land has been the main inspiration in life for me. After high school I set aside art to complete a MS in Horticulture and Landscape Design and worked in these professions for over 25 years. This was a perfect pairing of creativity with a love of nature.

I began to paint in 1996 with watercolor, then pastels and eventually migrated to oils. Still now, what beckons me to paint is nature and how the light can transform the ordinary into a scene of exquisite beauty. Whichever I choose- landscape, animals or buildings- need to be gilded by light, and that along with the early memories of color from Cuba come into play in creating my work.

Societies: Juried member Pastel Society of America, Sonoran Plein Air Painters Society, Tucson Pastel Society, Artist member American Impressionists Society

Artist Statement

I’ve been an artist ever since I can remember… From painting rocks as a child, throwing pots in high school, to learning about “paints” in my professional years, one way or another, I’ve kept the “creative” in my life.

I spent 25 plus years owning my own painting company specializing in color consultations and interior paint jobs. I learned about colors… I learned about paints… I learned about techniques!

In my 40’s I decided I didn’t want to retire on a ladder, so I took my art, painting experiences, and technical skills to college and completed my Bachelor of Arts in Interior Design. I had an amazing career in the design field, and it fueled my artistic fire to want to start creating my art again. I’ve noticed that my work has come full circle, encompassing all of my experiences.

I work hard to develop paintings and pots that speak to me and to others about colors and textures. As I build the layers, the work takes on a life of its own.

I’m ready!

Juried Show Exhibition

This series was a ‘breakthrough’ for me. I left representation behind, for the most part, picked up a potato or yam and started carving, painting and printing it onto paper or canvas. Then came back with paint or wax crayons or graphite to finish. The ‘print’ part of it all finds itself in many of my latest pieces, too.

​’EVERYTHING BEGINS WITH A DOT.’ Wassily Kandinsky

Please contact me with questions about the work, pricing or comments.

NolanWinkler.com

I also have a couple of sites to share with you:

www.newmexicoartistdirectory.com 
www.torccenterforthearts.org

My art depicts figures interacting with swirling forms of matter. This is a personal meditation on the circle of life and the law of physics that energy cannot be created or destroyed but converted from one form to another. Are the figures dissolving into ether or is the ether coalescing into a new form? Or do both events happen at once?

The concept springs from an impending awareness of mortality. While traces of ourselves can linger on in lives we’ve touched, it only takes a few generations before those meager shreds seem to disperse like wisps of smoke into the elements from which we emerged.

Many faiths offer more optimistic afterlife scenarios: some believe we merge into an eternal collective consciousness; some believe we’ve lived through this cycle many times before; and some even believe that we design, well ahead of our birth, our earthly experiences. I like these more hopeful ideas as I want to believe consciousness is not lost and that everything eventually counts for something somewhere.

The mystery of our origins and our ultimate destination, and any possible connection between the two, captivates me and compels me to construct a palatable story to tell through my art.

TimWeedlun.com

Cindi earned degrees from Lesley University College of Art and Design (formerly AIB of Lesley University) in Boston, MA and The Corcoran College of Art+Design in Washington, DC. She has also studied at SACI in Florence, Italy.

She currently is residing in Albuquerque, New Mexico where she has been influenced by the vast open spaces that speak to emptiness and isolation.

Cindi has spent several years traveling in order to research women’s issues. This allows her to discover threads of connection to address the current state of affairs regarding women’s choices about their bodies. 

Cindi has had exhibitions in California, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Washington, DC, Canada, and Italy.

Most recently, she traveled to Ireland to enjoy a month long residency in the Burren where she found inspiration from delving into the concept of identity through place.

My work reveals a confluence of emotions, as I expose painful memories, while at the same time attempt to hide my vulnerabilities. I use materials such as plaster, cheesecloth, and hair to tell my story. I follow my need to engage in small, repetitive gestures that represent an attempt to suppress my unprocessed loss.

Each stitch is a means to connect the present with the longing of an unknown forgotten identity. The physical act of making objects allows me to unearth intuitive connections that transform a deeply submerged sensation of someone or something gone missing. This process has manifested as the accumulation of symbolic objects and scraps of memory as I wrestle with my own anxiety, perceptions, and experiences, which reflect an intense need to connect the missing gaps that occurred through secrecy.

CindiGaudette.com