“I went to school to be an accountant because my mom thought I would become a starving artist,” says Preciliana. She received an associate’s degree in accounting from New Mexico State University “to pay the bills” in the beginning. But, Preciliana soon realized she hated the work and decided to pursue her dream of painting.
“I started at the Farmer’s Market downtown,” says Preciliana. “I painted on everything—rocks, sticks, canvas, wood—everything.” She also says she visited the library and taught herself different techniques and studied the work of Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keefe, and other artists with a Southwestern flair.
Preciliana’s first work for commission can be found in the Happy Trails Bed and Breakfast in Mesilla. Owner Sylvia Burns hired Preciliana to paint murals throughout the building, and after people saw her work, her business blossomed.
Although she is partial to painting in a Southwest-style, during her 17-year career Preciliana has painted in a wide range of styles and on a number of different “canvases,” including dumpsters, walls, fences, tree trunks, concrete, furniture, doors and even toilets. “It doesn’t matter what I paint on…I’m just excited to put paint on anything,” she says. Some of her favorite works have been paintings of the desert landscape, the Organ Mountains or birds from the area, and her favorite thing to paint is Mexican women.
Her largest canvas was a backdrop to the Las Cruces International Mariachi Conference in 1997. It was so big Preciliana enlisted the help of kids from the Court Youth Center to paint with mops on the canvas, which was laid across a gymnasium floor. Preciliana taught the kids involved in the Center, and who were part of a program for kids with behavioral disorders, about art and painting murals, along with Dia de Los Muertos traditions. She says the kids were very social, and she soon realized “they would talk about their lives” and says, “The experience helped me learn that art is therapeutic for everyone.”
Preciliana was also responsible for designing a backdrop for the National Democratic Party 1996 campaign for former President Bill Clinton. In addition, her work can be found around Las Cruces as part of the City of Las Cruces “Keep New Mexico Beautiful” anti-graffiti project, along with the dumpsters she painted for the equivalent project in the Town of Mesilla.
Preciliana opened La Morena Walking Tours and Gallery in 2002 and says she loves the artistic atmosphere that defines Mesilla. She paints in many homes in the area and explains her creative process as pretty standard. Upon being hired, Preciliana likes to sit with her clients and discuss their tastes, personality and what sort of feeling they want to get from a painting. Preciliana then creates a mock-up using water colors and if her clients like it, she gets to work, which may take her one to one-and-a-half weeks, depending on the size of the art. “I like to explain to my clients that this is their home, not mine,” she says. “I paint what they want me to paint – it’s their choice and what they enjoy – I will paint anything.”
Preciliana says her art is well-received and believes there is no way she could be successful if the people of Mesilla and the surrounding areas were not as supportive as they are. “I am blessed with a wonderful community who supports this artist.”
“I just enjoy life,” says Preciliana. “I breathe in all these colors and enjoy bright colors. My advice to the people I paint for is fill your heart with bright colors — it just feels better.”
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