Artists' Corner

Emily in her own words: https://www.instagram.com/em.arthouse/My paintings explore themes of personal growth, presence, relational dynamics, absence, connection, and hope. Viewers always ask, 'Why chairs?' I think chairs are an evocative metaphor for the human experience. I imagine them as figures or emotions in my work; their arrangements and interactions suggest the architecture of intimacy and the space between us. They symbolize the presence of stillness. My fascination with this subject evolved during a period of difficult and unsettling personal experiences. It became evident that my artwork was inviting me to sit with my feelings, to be present with myself and the emotions I was experiencing. My work utilizes symbolism, whimsical palettes, and patterns to create a thought provoking balance between deep human existentialism and profound joy. The interplay of light and dramatic shadows represent the passage of time, and the inevitable changes in life. My paintings invite you to reflect on the connections, transitions, and universal stories within our shared human experience. 

Greta Stockebrand is an abstract expressionist painter whose vibrant acrylic works explore the emotional and dimensional life of color. Blending gestural abstraction with surreal details, Greta’s practice involves a raw, physical engagement with the canvas as she employs brushes, knives, towels, and her own hands to build layered, dynamic compositions. Her work evokes both immediacy and depth, and viewers often engage in extended observation that allows them to feel meaning unveiled and expanded.

Originally from Massachusetts, Greta moved to New Mexico when she was young. She has exhibited work at the Corrales Art Studio Tour and Art Santa Fe, and is a permanent member at Ghostwolf Gallery in Old Own, Albuquerque. She continues to expand her practice through experimentation and a deepening relationship with color as a living force.

Artist Statement

My name is Jennifer DeSantis, but you can call me LadyJennD.

I’m a visual DJ. Much like a DJ mixes sounds to create songs, I sample images and text, then combine them to find where they meld, where they mesh. Bits and pieces of random media translate my messages, find their groove, and become whole as my visual songs.

Collage is life. It’s creating order out of chaos, and finding order in the chaos. Entropy enters, entropy retreats. I remix. Re-image. Reimagine …

I mix from items people normally overlook, such as publications long forgotten and discarded. I love to work with antique and vintage papers—the feel and smell, the particular colors/inks used back in the day possess such a je ne sais quoi. Working with these papers also gives me a way to travel back in time, to take something that existed and honor it while also giving it a fresh, new life! I like to blend patterns and ideas that seemingly wouldn’t “go together,” and prove that notion wrong.

I layer on imagination, depth, and sub-text.

I want you to hear my visualization as I express it, not necessarily with words, but with the flow of colors and symbols as a dazzling array of details synched to create an overture, a symphony, or the track you keep coming back to, for its hold on you connects you to something greater, something beyond …

Many of my pieces reflect the oddities contained in the philosophic subconscious and have levels of meanings I hope sing to you, resonate with you. My art comes from the mind, absolutely, but with the heart, and soul speaking in tandem, humming simultaneously. ~ LadyJennD

There is innate rebellion in collage. Destroying something. Creating something out of that destruction. It is liberating! ~ LadyJennD

Estevan moved from Las Vegas, New Mexico to Albuquerque in 2007 to attend UNM where he earned a bachelor’s in fine arts in 2014. He swiftly took himself to the world of Drag where he could branch out and excel in the realms of make-up, clothing, sleight of hand, and pageantry. Estevan served as Empress 26 and is well known locally and nationally for his performances, pageant wins, and community service. Estevan shared his design skills at Pottery Barn, where he worked for nearly fifteen years, at our very own Uptown ABQ location. He now works from home in HR, for the Forestry Service of the Department of Agriculture.

In 2024, Black Wall Gallery hosted Estevan’s first show, for which he created 61 original acrylic works on canvas. Most recently he helped with set creation at Adobe Theatre for “The Red Velvet Cake Wars.” He is ecstatic to work with Soft Corners Studio Center for his second show, and to have his first two shows in one year! To say Estevan is overjoyed is an understatement. All these blessings he greatly appreciates, and he hopes his art fills viewers and collectors with joy!

I am a multimedia artist who creates portals to other dimensions, often with the goal of repairing my inner child or connecting with communities. Inspired by the symbolism of Greek mythology, my depictions began as highly embellished memorials of stolen trans people as a way of reclaiming their lives on this plane but grew to wearable metalworks, installations and furniture. In the final semester of my BFA, I discovered my own roots in Greek mythology, while working with laser etching, memories emerged of growing up in Ithaca, New York, a town rich with ancient Greek symbolism. My own rebirth (through a series of circumstances as well as navigating newly surfacing memories of C-PTSD) brought me to an affinity with Persephone and the continual cycle of life and death. Through laser etching hand drawn images onto mirrors, I was able to create works that reflected this well guarded past. 

Since graduating from UNM in 2022, I have continued my love affair with glass. Creating reverse laser etched mirrors, often gilded with foil leaf, captures the style of my hometown of Ithaca, NY, rich with art deco and art nouveau architecture and design. Laser etching glass creates “ghosts” that project when light filters through them, the same “ghosts” that reflect in mirrors when exposed to light. These projections remove the objectivity of my work, allowing all who witness my shadows to possess them momentarily, while simultaneously proving that no one permanently can. I have also fallen in love with oil painting on glass using pigments, which aid in antiquating my palette, and create a sense of time lapse within my work. Together, my pieces strive to create places of beauty and connection informed by my childhood that was not. 

My pigments were purchased at the estate sale of a late transcendental writer and artist, a sale I worked personally. Not one to order painting supports, I prefer to find them at the estate sales I work, allowing me weeks to connect with their previous owners. This evolution of my work has increased my relationship with my queer ancestors, particularly, a great uncle who was disowned from my then Southern Christian conservative family for being gay. He was also an artist, antique collector and gardener. Like me, he grew up poor and often struggled with having a stable income, yet somehow knew how to surround himself with the finest things (through being an estate’s caretaker). In this process, my work has stepped away from queer human bodies and moved on to reflect the queerness of the flora and fauna of upstate New York that protected me as a child, to the global species in peril and species lost, including humanity, to the human response of late stage capitalism, and to the natural continual apocalypse of the earth hirself.

Born in the Philippines in 1980, Tippi Hunter grew up in North Dakota and currently resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico. At age seven, Tippi became interested in radio music and the role of a disc-jockey, and began drawing and has not wavered in creativity or music production since. Holding a B.A. in Fine Arts, Tippi is a multimedia creator and visual storyteller at best producing not only creative writings or comics but also animations, video art, and musical sound art. Tippi also produces a podcast called Beat Central, featuring continuous music mixes, and remixes of popular songs. Tippi first deejayed at a middle school function in North Dakota with their large home stereo, and then continued to provide musical entertainment in high school, as well as professionally for private functions, and at clubs, bars, theaters, and other fine establishments while living in New Mexico. Tippi's artistic inspirations include the Discworld Graphic Novel illustrated by Stephen Ross, DJ such as Miss M, Tiesto, David Guettta, as well as the works of such creative individuals as Scott McCloud, and Jessica Abel, just to name a few. Tippi studies sacred geometry, astrology, metaphysics, numerology, occult science, symbolism, and most importantly, their own vivid dream landscape. Tippi is an avid fan of esoteric non-fiction & philosophy such as The Field by Lynne McTaggart, as well as fictional works such as Richard Linklater's Waking Life, and Ken Russell's Altered States. Tippi seeks to produce thought-provoking, revolutionary short stories, comics, musical mixes to make you dance, and other creative works.

Tippi is an avid birdwatcher and holds great respect for the little animals all around us.