Artist Candy Mayer leaving El Paso desert for Alabama rolling hills
An artist in El Paso for 24 years, Candy Mayer says she is ready for her next adventure.
The artist, who first came to El Paso with her late husband, Charlie, is moving to Alabama to be near a daughter and her family. Her home on the West Side has sold but she is planning a final art sale from May 26-28 before she leaves for the Deep South.
Her husband passed away last year.
"The rest of the family is in Milwaukee and it's only a 12-hour drive ... and we're four hours from the ocean. So we decided this is going to be our new family adventure," she explained.
Her daughter and son-in-law are looking into buying a home in Birmingham.
Mayer said she has been getting sentimental about leaving El Paso. It is the place where she has lived the longest. She and her husband first moved to El Paso for a job in the late 1990s.
At the time, the couple was relocating from Iowa, where she painted a lot of red barns and created country crafts.
In El Paso, she quickly learned to love the desert and its native cactus, the architecture of the Downtown buildings and the adobe walls of old churches and buildings in New Mexico.
She enjoyed being able to transfer the images of the desert landscape onto the canvas. And she was able to devote her whole time to being a fine art artist in El Paso.
"One of the first things I did was go to Old Mesilla and take tons of photos," Mayer said. "I started changing my style, painting adobes, Southwest and then I got into Dia de los Muertos. And that has taken off like crazy. I gradually evolved away from my Iowa art."
Mayer quickly became a part of the local artist community by joining the El Paso Art Association.
"The El Paso community was great when we moved here," she said "I became friends with other artists and they were very welcoming, saying you need to do this show and that show.".
She said she will miss El Paso and her friends, but she plans to come back and visit.
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Mayer plans to come back for Christmas Fair and Dia de los Muertos events. She plans to keep supplying art for shops such as the Marketplace, 5034 Doniphan; La Casita Home Decor & Gifts, Placita Santa Fe, 5024 Doniphan; Airline International Luggage and Gifts, 8701 Montana Ave.; Hal Marcus Gallery, 1308 N. Oregon; Magoffin Home Visitor Center, 1120 Magoffin Ave.; Socorro Mission Gift Shop, 328 S. Nevarez Rd., Socorro; Galeria Azul, Mesilla, N.M.; Holy Cross Retreat Center, and Holy Cross Rd. Mesilla Park, N.M.
And shops such as Collectibles, 1530 Lomaland; and El Paso’s Finest, 314 N. Mesa, will continue to carry her prints, cards and Loteria game.
This weekend's art sale will cover a wide range of work from landscapes and El Paso architecture, and Virgen de Guadalupe art to Dia de los Muertos art to cards and home decor items. She also has some pieces of furniture on sale.
She will continue painting and plans to check out the art community in Helena, a suburb southeast of central Birmingham, where she will live.
"It's very green over there and I have two magnolia trees growing in my back yard," she said. "I just got to do a little research and see what's going on over there because I have no idea."
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María Cortés González may be reached at 915-546-6150, mcortes@elpasotimes.com and @EPTMaria on Twitter.
Make plans
Who: Artist Candy Mayer
What: Moving Art Sale
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 26-28.
Where: 1317 Tierra Roja
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Artist Candy Mayer says farewell to El Paso with art sale
