Category Archives: Family Profiles

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Profile: LaVONNE ROSE GARCIA

LaVonne Rose Garcia – “My family has been my easel and paint”

My name is LaVonne Rose Garcia , I am the daughter of Leon Arnold Leduke Garcia and Dorothy Edna Gallegos (daughter of George Gallegos Sr. and Julia Bottger). I was born in Albuquerque , New Mexico November 30th 1947 (pretty old ha, ha!) where I lived in Albuquerque till I was 10 years old.

My parents divorced when I was about 8 or 9 , my Mom (Dorothy) soon remarried to Malcolm Norris and we moved to San Diego, California, Denver then to San Antonio, my stepfather’s hometown. Constant changing of schools got me down, so I lived with my stepfather’s mother for about a year and half , while my Mom and Stepfather went to Florida.  By this time I had a little sister named Patricia.  My Mom returned and we settled in San Antonio by this time I was in high school.

I attended Catholic Elementary School and Public High Schools and eventually met Jesus Maria Gonzalez at catechism classes where we became friends.  Since I was not allowed to date till I was 16 years old my first date was the Prom.  After graduation in 1965, I got married in 1967.  We had our first daughter (who is named after my Grandma Julia) Julia Marie. Our family grew to 4 daughters Julia Marie, Jessica Rose, Justina Louise, and Joanna Renee.  We divorced in 1993 after 26 years of marriage, Jesse past away in 2006.

I worked in different occupations throughout my life, until I retired from Civil Service out of Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City.  The Air Force closed our base (Kelly Air Force Base) during Base Realignment and Closure so I moved to Davis Monthan in Tucson.  Later I moved to Tinker Air Force Base,  as it was closer to my family in San Antonio.

Luckily, I managed to send all of my daughter to Catholic School till they graduated from High School. My daughters have been the light of my life they have made me happy, sad, mad, and very, very proud.

My oldest Julia is the first HISPANIC woman Vice-President for Valero Oil where she is a lawyer and in charge of Communications.  Julia has one daughter,  Julianna, who is 10 years old.  She is a beautiful ballerina. Jessica works at Central Catholic Boys High School where my 2 grandson Julian and Christian attend high school. Julian is a Folk singer and can be heard on his websiteJuliangill.com Christian is a computer game wizard. Justina got her degree from Texas A&M and works for Child Protective services, she has one daughter Ava Lily she is 9 and loves fashion and singing and dancing (when no one is watching). Joanna just had a baby boy, and has a beautiful little girl Gabriella, she is not working but has worked as a chef and is a wonderful cook.

Life goes on and we grow each day , hoping and praying that the world will get better for our children and grandchildren as I am sure our ancestors prayed for us. My family has been my easel and paint, and I hope I have painted a happy picture.

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Profile: RICHARD ALIRES

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RICHARD ALIRES

After graduating with a degree in art at Eastern New Mexico University, Richard dropped out of the art world to concentrate on a career in business.   “For every thing there is a season.  For many years my  choices were focused on providing for my family and I put art aside for a while.  Painting has always been my love, so even though I was spending my time on other things, art was never  too far away from me.”

Finally, the  siren’s call became too great to ignore.  So once again, Richard picked up his brushes and dove in.  “When you start something all over again after being gone for a long time it’s pretty humiliating.  It’s hard to look at your work, knowing it stinks, and not get discouraged.   I guess the key is that  you’ve got to hang in there.”

“I started studying at Watts Atelier of the Arts, an outstanding art school run by Jeffry Watts.  The caliber of instructors in that school is extremely high.  All of the instructors are professional artist (either studio artists, illustrators, etc) that make their living with their talent.  You can’t help but improve when you’re around that kind of talent, it just rubs off on you.”

Richard’s ultimate goal is to become a teacher.  “I know I have a long way to go to be good enough to teach at a school that has a very high standard of excellence, but that’s my goal and I know some day I’ll get there.”   In the mean time, Richard is dedicated to putting in the brush mileage, under the critical eye of some of the best artists in the west, and to keep chasing the dream that he’s had for a very long time.

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Profile: THOMAS GALLEGOS

DESIGNS OF THE DESERT

Dichroic Fused Glass Pendants

I’m sure you will agree, this  is some absolutely stunning jewelry you’ve ever seen. We’re waiting on some bio materials from Thomas and even an explanation on how he makes such beautiful pendants. Until then, enjoy this exquisite gallery of his work

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See more of Thomas Gallegos work on eBay >> http://stores.ebay.com/DESIGNS-OF-THE-DESERT

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Profile: JENINA CARRIAGA-LAMBERT

Jenina Carriaga Lambert – the daughter of Charmaigne Gallegos Riehl

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So, I’m a Chicana mama of four from “The Land of Enchantment”, New Mexico/“Burque” (or Albuquerque as most know it) where my family has lived for hundreds of years. I was raised there & in Las Vegas, NV (Viva Las Vegas). I lived in Shenzhen, China for 4 years (Ni Hao). I’ve always liked to draw/paint and kinda have a varied style probably in part to my fun/funny background (I have a traditional NM [Catholic] artist dad, ex-preacher [born again] step-dad, a currandera [practices Mechica medicine] stepmom, and I’m a former LV showgirl/LDS convert/Susie Homemaker wanna-be). So yeah, I like to paint & squeeze it in whenever I can between trying to keep the four kids, husband, and two dogs happy, healthy, and on schedule. I’ve been lucky to have the chance to study traditional New Mexican art under master santero/my daddy Adan Carriaga & have studied traditional Chinese art in Shenzhen, China. I’ve displayed and sold paintings internationally.

When I was a kid my Daddy would give me supplies and let me do what I wanted, yipee lucky me. My Dad is a traditional New Mexican artist, a santero or “saint maker”. He makes bultos (traditional [Catholic] wood carvings of saints) and retablos (traditional paintings of saints on carved pieces of wood). If you’d like to check out his art he has pieces available for purchase during Santa Fe’s semiannual Spanish Market’s as well as San Felipe De Neri’s annual Santero’s Market located in La Plaza Vieja also called Old Town, Albuquerque. Check out his beautiful work on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Art-of-Adan-Carri… Swear you’ll love it!

So anyways, I grew up watching him as well as my Uncle Phillip, & Uncle Steve, who were also artists.My Tio Phillip was one of those fun people who liked others to join him in doing whatever he was doing at the moment weather it was eating (and sometimes very interesting things), painting or whatever. He absolutely loved to sit and draw together, He would hand me supplies and we would have a wonderful time talking about everything under the sun while we both worked on our own thing. He did such amazing things with color and detail, truly moving stuff I’m still learning from.