Iris watercolor by Kathi Geoffrion Parker. Courtesy photo
IRIS GRACE, 19×23 inches, Oil by Kate O’Donnell. Courtesy photo
Jewelry by Jen Longmire. Courtesy photoART News:
The Los Alamos Artists Studio Tour (LAAST) is pleased to present its third annual Studio Tour! This free, self-guided tour will take you into the studios of many of Los Alamos’s artists to see how they work.
The Tour is 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15 and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday Oct. 16.
This year, participating artists represent ceramics, fiber art, photography, painting, scrap metal sculpture, scratchboard, jewelry and more.
Artists Spotlight: Kate O’Donnell, Jen Longmire and Kathi Geoffrion Parker
Two years ago Kate O’Donnell of Los Alamos invited two other local artists, Jen Longmire and Kathi Geoffrion Parker to share her studio and home for the annual Studio Tour. Her home is lon the historic Bathtub Row street in Los Alamos and is a designated historic site. Los Alamos may be the only town in the country with a street called Bathtub Row. That unusual name comes with a great story, based in the history of the Manhattan Project.
During World War II, the school’s Fuller Lodge and the Big House were used as social gathering places for Los Alamos project personnel and some other buildings were used for housing. The school buildings were known as “Bathtub Row” because they were the only houses in Los Alamos with bathtubs.
Besides the location, what is unique about these three artists, is that they are all three natives of Los Alamos.
O’Donnell’s love of art and gardening come together in her luminous oil paintings. Her still life paintings, with dark backgrounds and focused light, find beauty in the simplest of floral images that invite contemplation. Her floral subjects come from her abundant and colorful garden, always changing and reflecting the season. Her work is represented in private collections and galleries in New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Oregon.
Longmire began making jewelry as a teen and came to love the art of creating unique jewelry pieces with color, texture, style and beauty. Lobelia came to life in 1992 and was sold at craft fairs and home sales. Lobelia jewelry has been sold at Fuller Lodge Art Center since 1995, and also is for sale at the Los Alamos Nature Center at 2600 Canyon Dr. Lobelia jewelry was featured in New Mexico Magazine’s holiday store last year. Longmire will have beaded jewelry, metalwork, recreated vintage pieces and accessories for sale as well as colorful knit hats during this year’s art tour.
Geoffrion Parker worked at Valliant Printing Company in Albuquerque as the art director for two years before starting her career at Los Alamos National Laboratory as an illustrator, graphic designer and web designer. She retired from LANL almost six years ago. She has been in several local galleries, the Fuller Lodge Art Center, local art fairs, the Hispanic Art fair, the New Mexico Arts and Crafts fair, and is a signature member of the New Mexico Watercolor Society. In 2016,Geoffrion Parker had a painting accepted into the Western Watercolor Society Annual show in Colorado and also will be featured in a national watercolor publication Splash 17, to be released this Fall. She loves to paint and draw a variety of subjects and while she is currently creating people paintings, she also is creating flower and still life paintings. In the last year she has rekindled a love for an old medium—scratchboard– to her skills, renewing a fascination for black and white. Come check out her new art.
Editor’s note: Watch for upcoming spotlights on more artists participating in this year’s Los Alamos Artists Studio Tour.
