Aesthetic support: 'The Architecture of Beauty: Works by Prominent New Mexico Artists' helps those battling cancer

In 2019, Albuquerque photographer Allen Morrison was desperately searching for a golden New Mexico field of sunflowers.

He found it near Loveland, Colorado, during a family trip.

“There was this massive sunflower field,” he said. “I stayed there for sunset.”

Aesthetic support: 'The Architecture of Beauty: Works by Prominent New Mexico Artists' helps those battling cancer

His road trip produced “Before the Storm,” one of 360 works of art displayed in “The Architecture of Beauty: Works by Prominent New Mexico Artists” at Gallery with a Cause. Located inside the New Mexico Cancer Center, gallery organizers donate 40% of each sale toward the center’s foundation to support patients’ nonmedical needs during their illness and recovery. This year, 16 artists added their work to the show in a variety of materials ranging from photography to sculpture.

Morrison came to photography after a 2014 layoff from a corporate human resources job.

“It led me to a second career in photography,” he said.

When his wife won a trip to the Galápagos Islands, he drove to Costco and bought a camera.

“At that first shutter, I was like this is what I’m going to do for the rest of my life,” he said. “It was the most dramatic thing that ever happened to me.”

He shot “Before the Storm” low, beginning with the sunflowers, then focusing up on the cloud-filled sky.

This marks Morrison’s first showing at Gallery with a Cause.

“I just think it’s an amazing cause,” he said. “My brother-in-law lives with us and he’s been living with pancreatic cancer for seven years.”

Today, Morrison owns Land of Enchantment Photography in Old Town.

El Prado resident Alexandra Kurtz was studying to become a graphic designer at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design when she took an elective pottery class.

“I ended up doing the next three years in ceramics,” she said. “I love the feel of clay and the focus required.”

Today she sells her work at a Taos art gallery and at fine crafts shows.

Kurtz creates three-dimensional tiles filled with natural flora and fauna, as well as birds, plants and insects.

“You’re always giving up a little to the kiln gods,” she said. “It does require a little letting go of the results. If I’m doing little details, it might dry by the time I get back, so I can’t walk away.”

“Cutleaf Coneflower” emerged from a meadow of yellow coneflowers near the Taos Ski Valley.

“Most of my work is based on what I see,” Kurtz said. “I take pictures of them. There’s a trail here toward the ski valley where there are a lot of coneflowers. They get at least three feet tall. They seem to be very attractive to bees and butterflies.”

Kurtz grew up in Ontario, Canada, and Vermont. She moved to Taos’s beckoning mountains to become a ski bum.

“I had no idea what a creative community there is here,” she said.

The show is not Kurtz’s first time at Gallery with a Cause.

“Having spent time in hospitals by myself and with other people, the opportunity to have something to look at in the waiting room is good,” she said. “I like that it helps raise funds for people who are going through stuff.”