VICTORIA INMAN

My name is Victoria Inman, I am a local artist from a town named Peralta, south of Albuquerque.  Peralta is a very small town made up of people proud of their Hispanic culture.  We had a post office, a bar and of course a church.  Growing up in a small town in the country I didn’t have a lot of exposure to art.  I helped in the garden cultivating the crops and I went to school.  My grandparents shared their love of nature and its abundance in color and texture.  I started to appreciate colors when I was about 6 years old.  I colored a picture for my grandma who told me it needed work.  Grandma Victoria was an honest and proud woman who encouraged me to always work hard and be proud of my work.

I took art classes in middle school and high school and did very well.  After high school I planned on attending college, but my life at that time changed.  My grandmother past away, the one person whose honesty and wisdom I would solely miss.  Soon after, I met David who would become my husband and I had my daughter Charissa.  Life was full for a young women becoming a mother at my age.  Within the next two years I had my son David III.  I feel that my life worked out the way it should have.  I feel very blessed being a mother and an artist.

Thirteen years later, I have been married to a wonderful man named David.  I have two very vibrant children and a dog named Micah.  I have been a stay at home mom for 13 years and have enjoyed it tremendously.  The last three years have pulled me back to my art.  I never lost my ability to create, it was just on the backburner for a while.  So one day, I bought a sketch book and let my ideas turn into vivid images.  I had so much bottled up inside, that I needed to surrender it on canvas.

My art work is a combination of my past, present and future.  I bring the world that I was brought up around:  nature, beauty, love and culture.  In my mind I can still see sunflowers blowing in the backyard and the chili ristras swaying off the side of the garage.  I loved to watch the ristras of chili change color in the fall from green, to orange-yellow and finally a deep red hue.  The colors inspired me, they gave me a chance to feel the nature as it grew all around.  Women are another source in my life and inspiration to what I enjoy painting.  I love bringing sensuality and beauty into my paintings, as well as nature and life.  I hope people realize life's joys are very simple, they are all around us if we just take time to enjoy them.