Colleen Murphy DeSanto Colleen is an artist from Creede, Colorado, although originally from Michigan near the Saginaw Bay. She received her B.A. with majors in Jewelry, Weaving and Art Education from Western Michigan University, studying under Robert Engstrom (jewelry) and Helmi Moulton (weaving). After teaching Art for 6 years, she took a hiatus to raise her three daughters. During those 17 years she studied with Al Brouilette (acrylics), Nita Engle (watercolor), Charles Sovek (watercolor), Margaret Kessler (oils), Gary Akers (egg tempra) and Steven Quiller (water media/color theory) and her paintings were in Sabra Peterson Gallery in Nantucket, Island, Massachusetts, Lighthouse Gallery in Tequista, Florida, Gathman’s Gallery in Harbor Springs, Michigan and Corporate Artworks, LTD in Schaumburg, Illinois. Colleen’s acrylic and watercolor paintings received numerous awards in competitions and exhibitions throughout Michigan. Colleen’s watercolors were accepted into the Michigan Watercolor Society Exhibitions and her oil landscapes were accepted into the Oil Painters of America National Exhibition four times, quite a feat when 1800 paintings were submitted every year. She qualified for Signature Membership in OPA but returned to teaching Elementary Art in 1997, and with over 775 students a week in her schedule; it did not allow time to continue painting. In 2010 she received the Michigan Elementary Art Teacher of the Year Award. She retired from teaching in 2011 and moved to Creede and is a full time artist working out of her studio at home. Colleen started exploring Sculpture using paper mache in 2016. It was then that she came up with her own “Dali” long legged animal style made from driftwood, willow saplings, paper, clay and paper mache. In 2016 she started selling them in CWaters Gallery in Creede, and in 2019 was invited to show them in Two Old Crows Gallery, in Pagosa Springs. Her whimsical animals now roam throughout the USA and Canada and she is continually evolving, and creating new animals and ideas. Colleen also exhibits her paintings at CWaters Gallery. She has developed her own unique textured style that uses modeling paste, and paper to build the understructure of the painting and then she uses Fluid Acrylics to create her expressively colored paintings. She is constantly evolving her painting style and expanding in use of mediums in her art, she will be adding linoleum block printing to the line of art she creates. These prints will be taken from her many sketchbooks and translated into the black and white linoleum prints and some will have watercolor, gouche, or casein added color to the print.