PHOTO: NOLAN RUDI

BY MICHAEL HENNINGSEN
Local artist Patricia Forbes, known for her Uppity Art! — whimsical columns, trees and urns in brilliant colors suitable for indoors or outdoors — will be featured on cable television channel HGTV’s “That’s Clever!” series on at noon MST Oct. 11.

“That’s Clever!” brings the cool crafting scene around the country into viewers’ living rooms with its daily, half-hour program.

 

After pursuing her education, Forbes became a mother and a successful entrepreneur. While raising her daughter, she created and operated an East Coast agency representing national award-winning media photographers. Even with her accomplishments in a creative business, she still felt a calling to return to her personal artistic journey and, after a 30-year hiatus, Forbes returned to painting and most recently to drawing.

 

In the past, Forbes has worked primarily with acrylic paint, which she continues to do, but has allowed her surfaces to vary from canvas to paper, to furniture, to wood and now metal. Recently, she has turned her work in a new and exciting direction the she calls Uppity Art! Her innovative nature has led her, quite literally, to new dimensional levels. She designs sculptural shapes that are then cut out of wood or metal and painted. The resulting painted columnar pieces are a whole new painting expression for Forbes and an exciting visual experience for the viewer.

 

For her episode of “That’s Clever,” Forbes, walks viewers through her latest fascination — asymmetrical frames made from wood, molding compound and acrylic paints. Local iQ sat down with the exceedingly cheerful Ms. Forbes to talk art, Albuquerque and her newfound status as a television personality.

 

“Each show features three artists from different parts of the country, and what you do is go through a project step-by-step and show the audience how it’s done. [The producers] found my website and contacted me because they were coming to New Mexico to film 17 or 18 artists. So they came to my studio, and we went through the whole process of making my project, which is an asymmetrical mirror frame. It was kind of funky. They had me doing some things that were pretty silly, but we’ll see how it turns out (laughs).”

 

How does this project differ from your other work?

“Mostly what I do is individual pieces, but this was something that I could show them step-by-step so it could be duplicated. When they contacted me and asked me to submit a project, I think they thought I would do one of the Uppity Art! sculptures. I presented a couple of ideas, and they chose the asymmetrical mirror.”

 

Why did you choose to relocate your studio to Albuquerque?

“The short answer is that we came through the Albuquerque [International Sunport] and got enchanted (laughs). It was time for a change. At the time, Tom, my partner and I didn’t know that, but we came out to his mother’s 90th birthday celebration in Colorado, and we happened to fly into Albuquerque. We drove to Colorado, and on the way back we came through Santa Fe and said to each other ‘What if we lived here?’ just kind of playing. We scouted Santa Fe, but it just didn’t feel right, but we knew it was time to move, so we just sold our house [in Virginia] and came to Albuquerque. It was a great move — the right thing at the right time.”

 

Discuss this article on the forums. (0 posts)