Alicia Bomhoff

I have always been a “maker”. One of my first memories is disagreeing with my kinder garden teacher on how to color a circle. At 10, I got my first sewing machine and made my own clothes and sold crafts in school. In high school I began painting, and sold whatever I didn’t give to my family. I won awards, but my art teacher told me I was plagiarizing so I started doing photography to paint from but found the instant gratification of it eclipsed my painting so I put aside my brushes for the camera. I received my college degree in photography from Syracuse University. Fast forward forty years and several creative careers later, with work in galleries and mosaics in homes and hotels, and my son needed a painting above his fireplace and while shopping for one I stumbled upon a local painting class. I had never done oil painting but instantly loved the medium, the layers, the fact that you can correct your mistakes. It’s just like life.

I am lucky enough to live in Taos, although someone once told me luck is the residue of design and desire. I was raised in New York and the logical location for my photography degree was NYC, but I never could stand the feeling I was inside even when I was outside in the city. So I chose the second city Chicago and was a commercial photographer for a decade there. On a photo shoot we visited Sante Fe and I was smitten. I knew New Mexico was home and managed to move here 30 years ago. I have raised a son in Taos, built an adobe home and now I live in an< earthship on the mesa.

Whether it’s photography or oil painting, to me it is always about the light and capturing the feeling of it in Taos. At some point it became necessary for me to put all that beauty on canvas. It truly is the land of enchantment. My son says “Mom, all you do is stare at the mountain” and I reply “Not yet, but that’s my goal”.

Alicia Bomhoff