State Of The Arts: Los Alamos Library Gallery Steps Up

Step Up Gallery Exhibits Coordinator Diane Stoffel at her desk recently at the Mesa Public Library in downtown Los Alamos. Photo by Bonnie J. Gordon/ladailypost.com

By BONNIE J. GORDON
Los Alamos Daily Post
bjgordon@ladailypost.com

Diane Stoffel joined the staff at Los Alamos Arts Council in 2019, and coordinates exhibits at the Step Up Gallery, upstairs at Mesa Public Library, 2400 Central Ave. in Los Alamos. The gallery is open during library hours.

“I wanted this job to meet other artists,” Stoffel said. “Ken Nebel [Director of Fuller Lodge Art Center] hired me. I interviewed and started the next day. It’s really fun.”

Stoffel wants to create an identity for the Step Up Gallery, which has never had a name before, although it has been around for a number of years, she said.

Stoffel moved to New Mexico three years ago. She lives in La Mesilla, just south of Española.

She fell in love with the state while on an archaeological dig in Truth or Consequences and wanted to return to the state.

“I love what you can see and hear in New Mexico,” she said. “You can watch a thunderstorm come right to you. I came here to do plein air. I love painting outside. I also paint in oil and do mixed media.”

Stoffel is a member of Plein Air Painters of New Mexico (PAPNM) and has shown work at the 2019 PAPNM National Juried Show in Santa Fe.

Participation in other PAPNM 2018-2021 plein air events in Santa Fe, Jemez Springs, Los Alamos and Taos has given her the opportunity to show work in Fuller Lodge Art Center, Jemez Springs Fine Arts Gallery, the Blumenschein Museum in Taos and select galleries in Santa Fe.

Stoffel is a native of Rochester, N.Y. and has worked in and around art since graduating from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1971.

Professionally, she owned an advertising art business, taught art (K-12), and worked as an archaeologist in New York, Mexico and New Mexico.

She has exhibited her work at numerous galleries around the U.S. and had her first solo show at Creighton University’s Lied Gallery (2008). The exhibit, entitled “Construction of Meaning” showcased Stoffel’s work investigating socio-political topics.

In 2008-09 Stoffel created a series of 20 large, abstract paintings inspired by Google Earth satellite images.

The series was shown in a year-long, exclusive exhibit at the Mid America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. A smaller selection of the series was shown in Montana at The Drawing Room as a part of Livingston, Montana’s Summer Art Walk (2010).

Other juried exhibition participation of her work includes Fuller Lodge Art Center’s shows “Fences”, “Point of View” and Plein Air Artists of Colorado’s 23rd Annual National Juried Fine Art Exhibition in Grande Lake, Colo.

“I was honored to have my first New Mexican one-person exhibit in the Portal Gallery at Fuller Lodge Art Center in 2020 titled “Black Mesa Majesty,” Stoffel said. “The show included both studio and plein air landscapes exploring Black Mesa in different seasons and times of day.”

The current show at the Step Up Gallery, “As the Clouds Clear”, is an exhibit of work by members of the Jemez Fine Art Gallery in Jemez Springs.

“The perspectives offered by ‘As the Clouds Clear’ come with friendship and optimism,” exhibit coordinator Betsie Miller-Kusz said. “Highway 4 runs both directions, so viewers are invited to visit the gallery in person, to see more of these artists’ works, and to compare the vistas they offer.”

Up Next at Step Up Gallery is the indoor exhibit of entries in the Los Alamos Fair and Rodeo Aug. 13-15, followed by “Women’s Votes, Voters’ Voices: Over 100 Years of Challenges” by Los Alamos League of Women Voters Aug. 21-Sept. 21.

Artists interested in showing at the gallery may contact Diane Stoffel at 505.500.4430 or manager@stepupgallery.org

Cloud Rider by James A. Vigil is part of ‘As the Clouds Clear,’ the current show at Step Up Gallery. Courtesy photo

Poster for ‘As the Clouds Clear,’ the current show at Step Up Gallery. Courtesy photo

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