This will be very brief as I finished sending all images for my book to Sunstone Press and hope the book will be out before September 11, 2022 when I will  be the featured Artist at the 9th annual New Mexico Painters show at Highlands University.  The book entitled:  "Walking Home"  The Life and Art of Monika Steinhoff  (a Memoir)

May 18th   Post on current events.  This is a staggering time!   Since (as stated before)   A SEA Gallery had to close due to the "pandemic"   and I, NOW  the sole  member of this organization,   am still a socially engaged artist,  will write periodically about what I think is occuring on Planet Earth.  I have concluded the Covid 19 virus was created by some lab, probably in the USA as a from of bio-enginiering.   While we were told that the different vaccines had been tested as 90% + affectiveness to prevent the spread; then we were told it would not prevent our getting,it so we must continue wearing masks.   The masks depersonalize everything.  One does not recognize friends (or who are unfriendly)  everyone, bandits and benign look the same.   I have yet to meet a person with Covid, but in the meantime I have lost 3 siblings, 2  to cancer and one to complications of a stroke, not helped by the fire that burnt down Paradise. Ca. and leveled her home and almost melted her car as she barely escaped in a 7 hour drive. To force people to get the vaccine is Facist.  It's proof of affectiveness is nil.  But my own experience with being around vaccinated people is =  something is wrong.    The vaccinated people are shedding toxins to others.   Put a magnet on to the point where the needle went into the arm:  the magnet sticks!   There is aluminum in the mix.  And i have further proof of it.  And Nanobots (sp?)   Those in power want this all dismissed as a 'conspiracy' theory.  Well it's not just a theory;  it is a conspiracy.  The truth will emerge.  Trust your gut. not your government.  

 This is my first post since closing the gallery on Old Santa Fe Trail!  Things began well in January of 2020;  Jeff Bingamin came in and bought a framed etching etching series  and was interested in another set (Rancho de Taos) which i promised to print for him.  In February a neighbor friend and collector made a purchase, so I was hopeful more collectors would appear, but instead the "Pandemic"   came.  I bravely held a few small shows, ending with a really significant one featuring artists i love and admire (including two very successful ones).  The gallery and i were honored by showing 7 paintings by Jerry West,  5 prints plus 2 paintings by Ron Pokrasso, new 3 dimensional work by Louise Baum,  Nudes by David Rogers and Monika Steinhoff's 6 piece Cosmography (The 4 major World Religions and our imperiled Earth).   Attendance of course was sparse and mostly by appointment,  but it was a worthy final show I was courageous to have put on and am still proud of.   

Now I will devote this blog (Socially Engaged Artist that I am)  to reflecting on contemporary events and to publicize some excerpts  of the book i am planning:  The life and Art of Monika Steinhoff.  

This Blog will also air what I believe is the truth about the 'pandemic' shared but rarely vocalized by others around the world which is:  the Corona Virus is so serious because world-wide public health is so impacted by the negative effects of wireless (and many other pollutants of course).  I am painfully aware that this is not a popular view because people love their smart phones so much, are addicted to instant   'connectedness' and society has made it difficult (most feel impossible) to get along without. [I pay a price: isolation.]  but I have also gained a lot:  a deeper more satisfying relation to Nature, 

also to my inner voice, and progressive freedom from illusion.

Images:   Order of placement    Bottom image belongs center bottom.  Next above is Upper center;  3rd is left top: 4th    Right top    5th  left bottom   & 6th  is right bottom.

July 30th - Still deeply into the "slow down and isolation of the "Pandemic!    But life must and does go on.  And life is incomplete (to say the least!)  without Art.  So all true artists are making art, which thrives in isolation as long as one has stored experiences.   So while fewer people are out and about, I also have more time to paint and am progressing on my 6 part (6 clayboards 30" x 24" =  48 x 90"composition) my Cosmology (gold leaf and egg tempera)  my ancestors, my contemporaries who have 'moved on', many (I believe)  affected negatively by the radiation from 'wireless' surrounding the middle upper panel featuring the 4 major religions all of which contain some of the fundamental truths.  Though it is a work in progress,it will be featured in what may be A SEA Gallery's last Show.

"Masked, Veiled and Unveiled"  group show with guest artists Jerry West, Louise Baum and Ron    Pokrasso.  Opening Reception (Carona Compliant)  Friday August 28th, 5 - 7 pm;  followed by a Tea Saturday 3 - 5 pm  539 Old Santa Fe Tr.    505 988 -9140      [more images soon[

March 28, 2020

Isn't this the way things go!     Collectors were finally coming again as Winter days grew warmer and longer, slowly changing to Spring;  in mid January A SEA Gallery had a good sale and also in mid February and now the world is in 'pandemic'  lock down!  We do get to decide (to some extent )  what activity, while guarded, is essential.  While humans willingly let themselves be defined as "consumers"  and corporations become humans, it's time that those of us who genuinely care about the Earth, Nature and time honored traditions, assert our selves and our values.  "Consuming"  pushed by corporate greed destroys the Earth while  Art heals and Art is essential.  So A SEA Gallery which serves only dedicated art lovers and supporters, one human at a time (spaced apart days, weeks or months at a time) will not close it's doors.  Mostly I will be in my studio, the separate building at the back, but not closed to the few collectors looking for true art.  Call 505 9140 or if no answer 988-4920. 
   Monika Steinhoff''s  50 year Retrospective was seen by too  few visitors and will remain open until this pandemic is over since this is the only opportunity to see such a substantial number of paintings spanning half a Century.   These six images where in Part I  of the Retrospective and are from the period of 1985 to '95. 

Part I

Retrospective of 40 to 50 years:  The reason for the variable is this:  50 years ago while a student in the PhD Literature program at UC Berkeley I finely (after long years of debate!) made up my mind to be an artist.  I had done a series of water colors from a trip to White Sands, put them up in my meditation closet,  looked at them altogether a few days later, and discovered:  I am an artist!    And from then on my path was clear and certain.  While still in the PhD program I pursued pottery, sculpture and batik.   40 years ago in Santa Fe I renewed that commitment, I was newly married and we had a son of 1 year old, and my art career took on it's next phase: one year of watercolors, one year of etchings and  the third year I began interiors of Santa Fe, restaurants, cafe's,  hotels, Indian Market etc. and even a series of the Balloon Fiesta.
After my 1st retrospective at St. John's college, inspired by a long somewhat disconcerting discussion with a an art critic working for the New Mexican, I began my series:  Journey of the Fool and changed from oil to egg tempera.right in the middle of a Master Class with Henriette Wyeth-Hurd, totally in a different direction from what she and her son Michael were teaching, uninspired by their more concrete almost scientific approach, I was catapulted into my fertile imagination.   Many woman artists feel they must devote themselves totally to art giving up motherhood and family to "get ahead" -    I felt different, all of life experiences are material for my paintings.  Being pregnant and having a child was an unforgettable experience and grist for  art.    My husband and I both having had some deeply traumatic childhood experiences, reached out to 3 other children through adoption, enriching ours and their experience.   And while my painting time became more limited, my concentration and discipline were deep and steady.was .  (next part while contain images as well.)

NMHU Painter's Exhibition at Kennedy Hall

A SEA Gallery artist, Monika Steinhoff will have three  pieces featured in the upcoming 6th Annual Painter's Exhibition at New Mexico Highlands University, from September 8th though October 31st of this year.   The first painting, "Early Meltdown "  was inspired by a trip to Alaska where her oldest son was starting  school at the University of Alaska, but wanted to snowboard at Valdez on his way. 
Steinhoff states:  "I love cross country skiing and took advantage of my time while my son pursued his favorite sport.  It was late January '97.    The foggy atmosphere and unusual warmth was both  magical and disturbingly dreamlike.    I skiied straight ahead (according to my compass)  mesmerized by the pools around the trees which mirrored small rainbows, to find myself facing a building that looked exactly like what I had left an hour earlier. How odd I thought.  It took me a few moments to realize i had skiied in a circle!    Later that year as I worked on this painting, I felt it was a clear sign of 'Global Warmng.' "

Early Meltdown

Head Above Water

Interrogation

Geier's show 6-21 to 7-23 2019

Yaa!  We are back in!      Now we are getting ready for a show of Friedrich Geier's new work,  (it is  brighter, more vibrant even than before). 

Opening on June 21, Friday 5 - 7 pm, and a gallery artist talk on Saturday between 3 & 5, discussing Geier's work and methodology.  How much planning drawing, revision does an artist do,  how much is intuitive trusting what comes through ones  psyche?  etc.    Refreshments will be served both days. 

A SEA Gallery was closed for 2 weeks due to my trip to Germany to be present at the Easter week subsitute Opening as we were unable to attend the original Opening of February 15th, 2019 due to a family emergancy.    Here are some of the paintings installed for one year at the Culturelles Historisches   Museum in Peenemuende where the V 2 Rocket was developed prior and during WW II.  Part I  of the show was the installation of  my Bronze of Werner Von Braun, commisioned by my father Dr. Ernst A. Steinhoff, in 3 editions (the first in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington  DC, the 2nd at the Von Braun House at White Sands Proving Grounds, NM).  As I understand fully that this period of German history is not popular, as Dr. Philipp Aumann, Musuem Director and Curator of the show, expressed to me, we agreed to exhibit my anti-war paintings along with the bronze.    As a student and graduate student at UCLA  and U C Berkeley in the PhD program in German Literature, I studied the Holocaust, WWI & II through it's Literature and also looked deeply at my own family history and experience of WW II (our family was bombed 13 times and I almost died from contacting Diptheria, Scarlet Fever and Whooping Cough) and our subsequent move to the USA through "Operation Paperclip"   without the adults, especially the scientists ever processing their role in being co-opted to support Hitler's war.  As an adult I became convinced there should have been some sort of  (not just "debriefing"   but moral examination and review of the Nazi conditioning that the families never totally lost and left deep scars in  psyches of parents and their off-spring of which i am one.  Once back in New Mexico to dedicate myself full time to being a painter a way of also processing and being witness to my life's  and present experiences, --- confronted by the existence in Los Alamos  of the Bomb,  [ the continuance of Von Braun's  and my fathers legacy (though they had turned long before to peacetime service to  society]  it's symbol, the Missile.

     

This is the first post since moving the gallery to our new location:  539 Old Santa Fe Trail   where A SEA Gallery has been since September 1st.  Organization is still ongoing especially in my Studio which is a separate building joined to the main by an enclosed  Pateo.  this allows me to paint un-interruptedly when I need to.    Here are some images of the new location (see next post).