First Friday’s ARTScrawl brought me to The Gallery ABQ for the opening reception of 2 Perspectives, featuring water media and drawings by Jerry Love and oil paintings by Jean Porter. In addition, Rebecca Nolda was present with her mixed media series Hidden City in the gallery salon. Art enthusiasts crowded the gallery as we all listened to Porter give her presentation on Artist Insights. 
Originally from New Jersey, Jean Porter was trained as a technical illustrator. Her varied experience includes electrical layouts, topography, electrical schematics to all kinds of illustration for publication. Porter has produced graphic designs, one of which was selected for the logo of the New Mexico Arts and Crafts Fair. Porter says, “My genre is Surrealism, using allegory, parody and analogy to make a statement, to a large extent I think that reality only exist in it’s perception.” Many times, Porter juxtaposes seemingly unrelated objects into a piece of art for the purpose of seeing their meanings in a whole new way. 
Jerry Love began drawing at the age of nine. His cartoons and drawings papered his bedroom walls. During his high school years, classmates commissioned him to draw portraits of themselves and their heartthrobs. Love likes to tell stories with his artwork. His audience can relate to his subjects, whether a western scene with cowboys and horses, rodeo events, trains, or Civil War reenactments. Love’s focus on Southwestern Art, so vividly depicted in his water media paintings and drawings, can be seen in “Mounted Command” and “Boots” featured below.
Rebecca Nolda was raised in the country and has never found the city to be quite comfortable, in spite of living almost exclusively in cities since she was a teen. Nolda says, “In the city, there aredark places, crowded places, occasional oases, many versions of boundaries...places to get lost, get found, get sidetracked...be isolated, entertained, enveloped, and abandoned. Not all of those are experienced with the same frequency or with the same intensity, but there are moments of recognition for each that I wanted to express in my mixed media pieces.” Nolda’s salon exhibit, “Hidden City”, is an amalgam of paint, 2D collage, and 3D assemblage. Being abstract, they are not meant to represent specific places or situations, but to capture the physicality of being in the city as well as the mental construct of being a city dweller.
2 Perspectives and Hidden City will run through October 27th at The Gallery ABQ, 8210 Menaul Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110, located in the Hoffmantown Shopping Center. Gallery hours are Monday - Saturday, 10 am - 5 pm. (505) 292-9333. http://thegalleryabq.com/
