Margi Lucena's Star Shines in Socorro
Most artists work alone, chasing the visions in their mind’s eye. The inclination to be a visual artist is usually instilled in childhood. That aptitude is built on the learning of technique and knowledge of when to let go of it. One artwork leads to the next and occasionally a great leap is taken and progress is made. All of this is hopefully leading up to the moment when the rest of the world catches up with you and you are taken notice of.
That moment is happening to Socorro’s Margi Lucena.
She grew up marinating in paint and images. Her dad, Dick Muldoon, was a painter and Margi describes the ever present smells of oil paint, turpentine and linseed oil as “comforting as the smells of home cooking.” Art was something that was always there as she married and had 4 kids. It was there when her family moved from California to Hawaii, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Eight years ago Lucena moved to Socorro to look after her father in Luna, who was ill. She had been painting for several years in oils and watercolors, then, six years ago, a friend gave her a set of pastels and she found herself in the medium. She began to pursue art full time and joined groups to foster proficiency in her new art form. She became member of the Pastel Society of New Mexico, the Pastel Society of America, the Plein Air Painters of NM and other groups. She entered group shows and art fairs and over time, the ribbons came. Lucena began to share studio and gallery space with Natasha Isenhour and they formed Curious Crow Studios in the historic Baca House. Lucena found the comments of her fellow artist supportive and she began to push forward.
The best way to describe a Lucena plein air or studio landscape is that you are surrounded and engulfed by detail that isn’t there. Lucena works quickly on a textured colored board establishing tonal values and composition. She then adds layer upon later of darks and lights. At some point the landscape shimmers with the heat and the flutter of cottonwood leaves in the wind. At that point Lucena does the hardest thing for an artist to do…she stops. Her viewers are left to fill in the details from their own memory. This is not impressionism, it is an emotional rendering that creates a concrete sense of place. It goes beyond light and color to a deeper place that viewers connect with.
In 2010, Lucena was taken on by the Selby Fleetwood Gallery in Santa Fe, bringing the number of galleries showing her work in the Southwest up to 4. She was shown in the Pastel Society of NM’s annual show and received yet another award. In May, the issue of Southwest Art Magazine not only featured Lucena’s work in its plein air section, it also used her painting Anna’s Road on the editor’s page to illustrate the article Wisdom From a Master: In Successful Artworks, Feeling Comes First. In June, Lucena was the featured artist in the online newsletter The Informed Collector and will be included in an upcoming issue of Pastel Journal. At rare times in the life of an artist the stars align so a multitude of goodness arrives. With her star shining brightly in that sky, all things are possible.
The Curious Crow Studio is located at 113-C Abeyta in Socorro. For details, call 835-4487.
