Vredenbergh is from New Hampshire but her family has a cabin in Jemez Springs and she has many fond memories of watching her daughter and her friends grow up climbing the ladders and exploring the caverns along the loop trail at Bandelier while enjoying the atmosphere, history and wonder of Bandelier.

“Although grand in setting and scope, as I descend into Frijoles Canyon it gets quieter and more intimate and the modern world just falls away. I am taken back hundreds of years to the time of the inhabitants of the canyon,” Vredenbergh said. “For me, this is what makes Bandelier so special. The presence of the ancestral inhabitants is very strong.”

Vredenberg said that getting to live at Bandelier during her art residency there was very special to her.

“To really dwell in it, spend time in it and abide there was very special to me. I spent more and more time pondering the original inhabitants and their relationship to the rock that they literally dwelt in. Dwelling in the rock. To be in relationship with the rock,” she said.

This tied into her own faith, she said.

“It invites us to abide in the Rock – the source of our being – the source of love, safety and joy. Not just to visit it and touch base with it now and then but to make dwelling in the Rock the basis of our life, to make the Rock of Christ our home,” Vredenbergh said.

A Summa cum Laude graduate of Syracuse University with a degree in fine arts, Vredenbergh was a freelance illustrator of children’s books while painting on the side for many years before taking a leap of faith and painting fulltime. In addition to Fuller Lodge Art Center, her work may be seen at the Jemez Fine Art Gallery in Jemez Springs.

Fuller Lodge Art Center at 2132 Central Ave., is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday.