Artists will be in each garden Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. (Scroll down to the Artist Bios to find out their gardens shifts.)

Gardens and artwork are similar in that they are composed in harmony with a series of shapes, forms, colors, and textures. We invite you to watch the artists as they express their artwork in the gardens. The 2024 Placitas Garden Tour will invite a select group of local artists to “create” their magic in each of the gardens.

All of the artists’ personal works will be on display for sale at the Placitas Community Library on the day of the tour.

This is a very special opportunity for you to own an original work of art at the 2024 Placitas Garden Tour. The artists are working in collaboration with the Sandoval County Master Gardeners & the Placitas Community Library to raise funds for future landscape projects & educational programs in Placitas.

Information about each artist is listed below. If the artist has a website, you can click on the artist’s name below to visit it.

2024 Artist Bios

Barbara Morrow

Barbara will be at the Ridgeline View Garden (#4).

Her work will be at the Placitas Community Library from August 30 through September 26.

I grew up on the plains of Eastern Montana, and was fortunate to be given the freedom to run, to roam and to explore; privileges that only a child of a small rural community can know. I was intrigued and captivated by the wildlife, native plants and open vistas of the Great Plains. It’s a land whose quiet and peacefulness still calls to me.

I attended Montana State University to pursue a degree in Radio, TV and Film, and after three years I followed my life mate on a life-altering move to Los Angeles. There I completed a BA and MA in Media Communications and worked for 26 amazing years at the Los Angeles Times and the RAND Corporation. I was privileged to work as a media producer managing and overseeing talented visual storytelling teams. After retiring and moving to a small cabin in the Mojave Desert for three years, we relocated to New Mexico to begin the next phase of our lives here in the Land of Enchantment.

My rural background comes to play in my art. I create whimsical creatures based on our desert environment. I discovered my medium by salvaging Styrofoam trash from the arroyo behind my home. First, I simply designed and cut out shapes and learned to mosaic them. Later, I learned to sculpt the Styrofoam to create more three dimensional and realistic creatures. Each of my creatures is unique, and I constantly experiment with materials such as clay, stucco, brushes and feathers to mimic their real-world features.

I love the process of making art. It’s a process that pulls you in and holds you captive. It cuts out the noise and distractions of everyday life and teaches you to pay better attention to the world around you. Creating art brings me calmness, focus and peace, and in return I want my art to give others the gift of happiness.

Dale Laitinen

Dale will be at the Placitas Stonehenge Garden (#7).

His work will be at the library from August 30 through September 26.

The landscape has always figured prominently in my art-consciousness. Throughout my painting life, the bigness of the West, with its expansive vistas, has had me painting the optimistic promise of open space.

Throughout my painting life, the bigness of the West, with its expansive vistas, has had me painting the optimistic promise of open space.

Drawing and painting have been a life-long pursuit for Dale Laitinen. He calls it chasing shadows to find the light. As a young child he was always the artist, drawing before he could read. Dale first put brush to canvas in the nineteen sixties and has continued to the Present.

After graduating from San Jose State University in 1975 with a degree in Fine Art, he began painting full-time in the nineteen eighties. He sells his work in galleries in California and teaches workshops across the country.

Dale was one of the Jurors for the National Watercolor Society’s 2022 International Exhibition. He is published widely, and his most recent article is in the 2022 October Plein Air Magazine. He has published a book called “Blue Shadow Country” available at blurb.com. Also, his Video is available at Streamline Publishing.

He recently moved his home and studio to Placitas, New Mexico after living most of his life in California.

Dana Patterson Roth

Dana will be at the Seeding for Sustainability Garden (#2).

Her work will be at the library from August 30 through September 26.

Born and raised in New Mexico and a long-time Placitas resident, Dana Patterson Roth fell in love with photography at the age of ten. She has studied photography and painting at UNM, the Santa Fe Photography Workshop and other venues.

Dana shows yearly in the Placitas Studio Tour and the Placitas Holiday Market. Her work has also been in various shows in Albuquerque and Placitas, including the Placitas Artist Series. With thirteen other artists, Dana helped found the Placitas artist collaborative, Wild Hearts Gallery, in 2018. She is on the Placitas Studio Tour Board and served on the board of the Placitas Holiday Sale.

Beginning with black & white photography, Dana concentrated on documentary, portraiture, and event photography for many years. She only embraced color photography when she switched to digital cameras and gradually, she began to let go of her self-imposed rules and traditional guidelines. She now works in both black and white and color photography, discovering new ways to use a camera or creating images with other photo-like processes. Most recently she has been exploring the possibilities within encaustic photography.

As enchanted as I am with photography, I also love challenges and pushing the bounds to find unique ways to express myself; often using photography as a springboard for my creativity. I thought when I started working with photo encaustic that I would pursue one specific style, but that hasn’t happened. As a photographer I have been taking photos and collecting them for years. Photo encaustic allows me to revisit some of my old images or to take photos with a new motivation and find different ways to express myself through them.

I am still and may always be in the experimental stage. I love choosing an image and then listening to it, letting it guide me. With encaustic photography I can add wax, colors, texture, or even objects to a photograph, to emphasize certain features, or scrape away parts that aren’t needed. I think this is what I do with life sometimes: remembering and even re-interpreting moments of my life, hanging onto what seems most important to me, while letting other parts fade away or be obscured by time.

Jay Leutwyler

Jay will be at Maggie’s Garden (#3).

His work will be at the library from August 30 through September 26.

I grew up in Clovis, NM and from an early age I had an appreciation for art and music. I was fortunate to have a great art program in the Clovis Public School System where, in junior high my teacher introduced me to watercolor which has been my main medium since.

I attended college at Eastern New Mexico University, majoring in Fine Arts. Throughout the years I have studied with Naomi Brotherton, JK Drummond, David Vega Chavez, Frank Eber, Andy Evansen and, most recently with Bud Edmondson. My interests in painting are Landscapes, Nature, Still Life, Plein Air and Urban Sketching.

Residing in New Mexico, I find a great deal of inspiration in the region’s land, towns, and people which make it unique. I look for the beauty within the everyday and ordinary and hope to share my discoveries through my painting.

I currently reside in Albuquerque NM and am a Signature Member of the New Mexico Watercolor Society and Associate Member of the American Watercolor Society, the Southwest Watercolor Society and the National Watercolor Society.

Seung Youn

Seung will be at the Legacy Color Garden (#1).

Her work will be at the library from August 30 through September 26.

Originally from Korea, I pursued a business degree and worked in a bank before moving to America. Now, after over 40 years living in Canada and the U.S., I’ve settled in Albuquerque with my husband. For the past 20 years, I’ve found joy in painting with pastels, mostly landscapes.

When I paint, I pour my emotions into the colors and strokes, aiming to capture the essence of what I see. Nature’s ever-changing beauty, especially how light transforms it, inspires me. As a signature member of The Pastel Society of America and The Pastel Society New Mexico, I’ve had the privilege of learning from master artists like Albert Handell and Richard McKinley.

My dedication to art has been recognized with numerous awards from national and regional shows, including first place in the Expo New Mexico twice, first place in the Masterwork Miniature Show twice, and first place in the Plein Air Painters of New Mexico Quick Draw competition. Additionally, I was honored with an Honorable Mention in the Pastel Journal 100 competition.

My works have also been featured in publications such as the book “How Did You Paint That? 100 Ways to Paint Favorite Subjects” by International Artist Magazine and “Plein Air New Mexico” by The Jack Richeson Fine Art Series.

Steve McKibbin

Steve will be at the Books, Blooms and Seeds Garden (#6).

His work will be at the library from August 30 through September 26.

My southwest contemporary gourd art includes vessels, urns, and sculptures often integrating organic materials such as driftwood, pottery shards, antlers, and horns, as well as native grasses. I use a unique process known as Litchenberg fractal wood burning to enhance his gourds. Turquoise inlay is often added to the wood burned patterns giving it a southwest spin.

Just before I moved to New Mexico, I owned an airbrush store in a mall in Houston, TX for four years. When I sold it, I was asked to do some artwork for a man named Jonny Savell, which required me to make jewelry. I had no Idea how to make it! My first attempt was carving pieces out of bronze and using a small torch and bronze welding rods.

I moved to Ruidoso in 1994 and worked for Dave McGary on the Free Spirits at Noisy Water project, which stands by the horse track in Ruidoso. I moved to Albuquerque in 1996. Looking for work in the paper, I saw a opening for “wax carver, designer.” This is when I discovered jewelers wax! I struggled with it for a few months, then finally, I was able to make it work for me.

I worked at several jewelry companies in Albuquerque. The last one was Kabana/Mati jewelry Co. where I gained a lot of knowledge and experience in carving and jewelry making. I have been freelancing for 15 years now. I carve and design for clients all over the United States. I also have been doing work for the movie business in the Albuquerque and Santa Fe area.

My carved gourd art can be seen in Yucca Gallery in Albuquerque. I always look forward to sharing and teaching what I have learned so far on my journey.

Karen Melody Shatar

Karen will be at the Zenful Garden (#5).

Her work will be at the library from August 30 through September 26.

As a longtime resident of New Mexico, I have come to love its shapes, textures, colors and ever-changing patterns in nature, the skies, the mountains and the rivers. As a nurse midwife with a career of nearly 45 years, attending over 3600 births, my hands have learned to feel, to intuit and act as a guide in the most blessed event of birth.

Transferring this learning and awareness into creative expression in glass these last eight years has been a very similar process that is continuing to guide me into new aspects of myself that are just as exciting.

I am fully and joyfully committed to finding this passion and joyful expression in fused glass as I continue to learn new techniques and delve into the mystery of making. So many choices, so little time to explore all that calls to my heart, but, nevertheless, I am so open to the newness of life that presents itself every single day.

As a writer and traveler, I have learned to enjoy the nuances of place, person, relationship and interaction with self and other. As a glass artist, I am learning to enjoy the same energies that exist within myself and bring them into playful and sometimes profound expression.