August 2022 - PROFILES: Sonia Luévano
Sonia Luévano is a New Mexico artist with a BA in Visual Arts, Studies in Sacred Art, and Interior Design. A true Renaissance woman, Sonia pours life into every canvas she touches. To Sonia, Art is innate. It is a part of her. We are excited to talk about her new studio, her mission with her art, and bringing Fine Art to a new level.
Where do you get your inspiration? Has it also been a part of you or something you discovered?
I have always been into creating. My mom saved pictures from when I was two, and my love for art just blossomed from there. As I headed into college, I almost went for Music, and after a lot of deliberating between design and art, I decided to settle on Fine Arts. Just through existential crises and analyzing my brain and spirit, it evolved into a new, more surreal style as I got older.
You have an interesting take when it comes to your art. What is your mission?
My mission is always to bring beauty into what may seem ugly or light into what may seem dark. Bringing hope to people - to the viewer, who may feel alone, not heard, or not loved. Something to show like to be human and to be a living, loving creature, we don't have to be perfect, but there's always the beauty in the mundane and some light in the darkness.
Congratulations on the re-opening of your studio. You're incorporating Interior Design this time around. Tell us more about that.
I dropped Interior Design when I was in college. I went to a private Christian School affiliated with another they sent their design students. There was a curfew, and it didn't allow for the number of studio hours I needed to fulfill. So I dropped it and regretted it. So I am currently working on getting my certification for residential interior design. So I'm incorporating that more into my studio.
Many think of Santa Fe when it comes to Fine Art. Then there is you, who is in Downtown Albuquerque. Was that deliberate?
Absolutely! I'm not from New Mexico. When my sister tried to convince me to move to New Mexico, she said, "Oh, you'll love it. You'll love the art", and I thought she meant Santa Fe. I don't do touristy art. I typically don't do landscapes. I said, "I don't want to go to Santa Fe." I almost moved to Chicago, New York, or Portland, but to be a thriving artist in those cities, you need to have gone to school there or know somebody. I didn't want to end up homeless. I had some friends - it happened to them. She drove me through Downtown Albuquerque in 2011. There were a bunch of murals downtown. I felt like something was about to happen here, and literally, the day after I graduated college, pack up my stuff and drove out here.
To learn about Sonia Luévano and her studio, Sonia Luévano Fine Art & Design, visit sonialuevano.com.
Author: Teresa Robinson, Publisher, Editor-in-Chief