Darlene McElroy is a mixed media artist who creates works of imagination and vision in her Santa Fe studio. She was born and raised in Southern California, is descended from an old New Mexico family of storytellers and artists. Darlene has been deeply influenced by the time she spent growing up in Santa Fe on her family’s ranch where the rich tapestry of Hispanic life brightly colored the days and filled the nights. Her grandfather was an artist on Catalina Island, and he’s the one who exposed her to art as a life style, and introduced her to the narrative in art and color. She currently lives in Santa Fe where she enjoys the skies, the color and the art. Throughout her career, the artist has combined head and heart in her creative journey of producing evocative mixed-media paintings. Darlene trained as an illustrator and painter at Cal State University Fullerton.
She has passion for dreamlike imagery, an obsession for materials, and love of new technologies, which she uses to immerse herself in surfaces that are richly textured, mixtures of new and old, and subdued and brilliant tones. And in her art there’s always a symbol or face of humanity that serves as a guide into mysterious layers which draw upon emotions and challenge reason. After her training in the fine arts, Darlene added graphics, design and illustration skills at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. Never content in withholding her knowledge, the artist continues to teach design, art, and computer graphics across the country.
