About

a b o u t

FLAX
is about All Things Fiber

Eduardo Alicea - Blanch Almquist - Susan Christie -
Sandy Hopper - Jessica Logreira - Donna Monroe

FLAX all things fiber, a group of six artists, five women and one man, live in the small desert town of Truth or Consequences, NM. Being artists of many years is our common denominator, for two of the six, fiber has been primary. The spark bringing all of us together was a workshop taught by a flax artist from northern NM. What was noticeable, between everyone, was how much they missed the community of other artists and how much mutual joy this weekend uncovered. We decided to continue on working together using what we had learned. We began at once, working at each other's studio's. The first work session was April 29, 2019 @ Jessica Logreira's Studio.

EDUARDO ALICEA
Eduardo Alicea was born in the Bronx, but he was raised in Puerto Rico beginning at age seven when his family moved there. He was formally trained as an artist and has a Bachelor’s Degree in Painting and Graphic Art from the Universidad Interamericana Recinto de San German, Puerto Rico. While living and working in Puerto Rico in 1999, he saw an on-line ad for a position as an assistant to H. Joe Waldrum, who was in the process of establishing his studio/gallery, RioBravoFineArt, in Truth or Consequences. Alicea took the position and was instrumental in Waldrum’s early efforts to establish the gallery. With Waldrum’s untimely death in 2003, Alicea took over the responsibility of running the gallery. The settlement of Waldrum’s estate in 2014 made Alicea the full owner and director of RioBravoFineArt Gallery. Under his leadership, RioBravoFineArt has grown to represent a group of talented artists with a wide range of artistic expression. The demands of operating the gallery limit Alicea’s time for artistic expression, but he does pursue artistic activities when time permits. He has recently been developing his fiber art skills, participating in a plein air group, and experimenting with acrylic pouring.
www.riobravofineartgallery.com

BLANCH ALMQUIST
RJ Blanch Almquist first witnessed art as a child living on the Hualapai reservation.
A passing stranger sculpted a doll for her, from a carrot, and as the doll shriveled and molded, she became captivated by the transient nature of art. As a silversmith, she uses fire and forge to manipulate reclaimed copper and silver. Inspired by the contrast between metal and flax, Blanch works intuitively, exposing her primitive nature, as she discovers and uses the unique characteristics of natural fibers. She has exhibited in group and juried shows, and has work in municipal and private collections.
Photo by Michael Padilla

SUSAN CHRISTIE
The Zen concept of Shoshin - Beginners Mind.
Working in 3dimensions with new materials, & incorporating my beloved plant materials is Shoshin.
To see a bit of what I have been doing for 50 years.....
www.susanachristiefineart.com
And what I am doing now.....
Editor/Publisher The New Mexico Fiber Arts Directory
www.newmexicofiberartsdirectory.com
To the spirit of new beginnings.......🙏

SANDY HOPPER
Lateral Thinking-solving problems through an indirect and creative approach, using reasoning that is not immediately obvious and involving ideas that may not be obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic.

I am in love with the process of creating fiber art. Every creation is a journey involving multiple steps, each offering up a different challenge to be met. With the majority of my work being wearable art, I take great pleasure in thinking that my creations are wrapping someone in a colorful cocoon whether it be for a day at the office, on a trip to London or out for an evening at the opera. Success is a meditation panel that helps calm the chaos and promotes a more Zen-like environment, bringing inner peace and tranquility. My goal is to spread love, light and good energy through my art..
www.sandyhopperfiberartist.com

JESSICA LOGREIRA - Jessica Logreira is emerging from transition.
Born in New York and raised in South America until the age of 18, Jessica was exposed in early childhood to the cultural importance of creative expression, thanks to her mom’s social activism in community arts programs. In a tragic twist of fate — losing her mother at sixteen — Jessica was forced to put her creative passions on the back burner. For 25 years she was immersed in a corporate career with a major hotel chain in Central & South America.
Finally, she decided to quit her job and pursue her heart’s passion for creativity. She danced and sang, she did yoga and meditated, she did self-exploration and emotional processing — and she took art classes, lots of art classes. In her quest, she was exposed to a vast sea of art mediums. Her favorites include silk & batik, collage-making, mosaic, mandala and sacred geometry, Touch Drawing, art journaling, Congo Art, and fiber arts.
And now she is following her dream! She is pouring her creative passion into the Emergence Healing & Expressive Arts Center, where she is dedicated to providing a safe, nurturing space for people to explore their own journey — to let loose as she did -- creating expressive art that heals the soul.

DONNA MONROE
My love affair with making, mixing, patterning, collaging, stitching, coloring, pasting began early. Then graduating from the University of California Santa Cruz with degrees in Photography and printmaking, After settling in T or C I had the good fortune to buy a house with a large studio space and my focus changed from small, portable pieces to larger and more varied work which includes wall hangings, totem figures, bags, fabric collage and assemblages. Of utmost importance to my aesthetic is the unearthing of found fabrics, paper, beads, sticks rocks, rusty stuff found in the desert, on the street and anywhere else one stumbles upon the detritus of human activity for reuse, repurposing, and reshaping into whatever captures my fancy at any given moment.
www.donnamonroeartist.com