Frances Perea

FRANCES PEREA

She has lived and travelled in many places, but for artist Frances Perea, her roots and culture are grounded in the place she was born in, Santa Fe, New Mexico. This is the place in her heart that she calls home. The age old influences of her Hispanic culture and her Catholic upbringing carved deep impressions in her creative expressions and continue to this day.

In the small country school she attended in the rural village of La Cienega, New Mexico, it is the pencils, crayons, and paper that she loved the most. Even then she knew that "painting pictures" was something she wanted to do all of her life.

Her works have been sold through the Smithsonian Institution and continue to be sold through fine shops and galleries in the United States. Her art can be found in private collections in England, Germany, Spain, Ireland and Japan. She has also been included in exhibits at the Museo Cultural De Santa Fe, Montez Gallery, and the travelling exhibit Our Saints Among Us.

About her work Frances says: "I am mostly a self taught artist, although throughout the years I have taken specific workshops and classes that I felt would enhance my artistic skills." It was one of these workshops in the mid 1980's that introduced her to the art of making santos. The workshop was taught at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, NM by the notable santero Charlie Carrillo. She credits his wonderful enthusiasm for the santos and his willingness to share his knowledge about them that initiated her path to becoming a santera (maker of saints).

It is in the religious experiences of her childhood that her involvement with the santos took seed. In the little church of San Jose in La Cienega, NM where she grew up, was a very tall and old statue of Saint Joseph holding the baby Jesus. His head was always tilted ever so slightly and it seemed that it was possible that he could truly see all that were seated in the church. His beautiful and compassionate face represented to her what most of the santos did in her life, faith, hope, and love. Even today this is what they continue to symbolize for her.

She says: "The process of creating art is almost as important to me as breathing. I am constantly creating things in my head even before they are actualized on paper or as another form of art. I am stimulated by the most ordinary experiences as well as by the great works of my fellow artists. Folk art is the art of the people and it is in this realm that I feel most at home. But I prefer to stay open to the creative flow and like the freedom to experiment and be playful with my art. It's important to me to not have a mindset about what is right and what is wrong about creating art. Often my santos reflect an innocent quality to them. I know that they suffered deeply for their faith, but for me I choose to show that side of them that in the end through their commitment to their religious beliefs, freed them from their pain."

Frances has been involved in the art community in many ways. In 1984 she showed her work at the El Gatito Gallery in Los Gatos, CA. She also founded an artists support association to help artists promote their work. She was a founding member of the Museo Cultural de Santa Fe, an organization formed to help preserve and promote the traditions and culture of the Hispanic community in New Mexico.

Today she travels between her adopted home in the country woods of Tennessee, where she has become involved with the Tennessee Association of Craft Artists, and her beloved New Mexico that beckons to her from the not too far distance.

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