By John Pantoya
Artist and CSU-Pueblo faculty member Maria Lopez gave insight to her inspirations in a lecture given in room 134 of the Art/Music building on Tuesday afternoon.
Approximately 12 students and faculty attended the lecture, including the youngest of Lopez’s two children, daughter Rosie.
“I try to bring them with me so they can see me work,” Lopez said. “They like to do it.”
Lopez has been an artist for over 15 years, having obtained her bachelor of arts from CU-Boulder, and her bachelor of fine arts from Boston University. She has been teaching part-time at CSU-Pueblo for three semesters.
“I currently teach visual dynamics,” Lopez said. “I’ve also taught 2d design, and I also run the open mic night here on campus”
Lopez is classically trained in landscape and figurative art, and has always been influenced by religious style art from New Mexico, and says it reflects in her over 300 paintings and 1000 drawings.
“I was born and raised in Pueblo,” Lopez said. “I grew up with that art being from this region.”
While on summer break from college, Lopez worked as a gallery guard for the Sangre De Cristo Arts Center, she said. While there, she was assigned to guard the New Mexico Santos display, she said.
“I guarded them and studied them and drew them,” Lopez said. “They really influenced my work.”
Lopez’s most influential book of artwork is entitled “New Kingdom of the Saints”, which is a collection of Spanish colonial religious art, she said.
During her lecture Lopez displayed her website, lopezme.com, on a projector. The website contains several pieces of her art such as paintings, drawings, and photos, she said. She also placed several original pieces of work on a table for display.
Lopez then briefly described each piece of art and discussed her inspirations for each one. Rosie was quick to help her mother by pointing to the screen as Lopez described he work.
Lopez’s artwork included depictions of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, the Las Supper, Christ’s resurrection, and the holy family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Though Lopez has several paintings and drawings, she hopes to work more with sculptures in the future, she said.
Along with her website, Lopez has books of her art work to her credit such as “Religious Iconography”, “Early Work”, and “Collection of Drawings”. She can be reached at [email protected] and www.myspace.com/lopezme.
