Sharon Arellano

Sharon Arellano (b. 1958, Taos, New Mexico) is the eldest of four daughters raised in Peñasco on the scenic High Road to Taos. She received her Bachelor of Social Work from New Mexico Highlands University, Las Vegas, NM. Following a twenty-five year career as a juvenile probation and parole officer with the New Mexico Children, Youth, and Families Department, Sharon retired in 2011 and now focuses her energy on creative pursuits. Sharon is a firm believer that creativity is good for one's mental health and enjoys working in many forms including clay, tin, and nearly all types of fiber arts. Sharon works in a large sun-filled studio in her home and bakes her clay pieces in an adobe horno oven built by her husband and friends that resides outside her front door. Sharon was first exposed to colcha embroidery in 2012 in a class taught by Beatrice Maestas Sandoval at Art for the Heart Gallery in Peñasco. In 2016 she learned to weave sabanilla during a 6-month class taught by Karen Martinez, a 7th generation weaver in Chimayó. Like many colcha embroiderers, Sharon creates from the heart, and seldom with the intention of selling her work. She enjoys using the traditional colcha embroidery stitch in nontraditional ways. For instance, when Sharon first retired from professional life, she took apart and embroidered on the clothes she no longer needed for a life in the public eye. Sharon embroiders everything from hatbands to shawls and even, since Covid-19, personal protective masks. She has explored the nude female form in colcha embroidery. Sharon enjoys participating in the monthly gathering of needleworkers at Martinez Hacienda in Taos, where she cherishes the encouragement, expertise, and camaraderie of Connie Fernández and others. She lives in rural New Mexico, where she says one must “stay busy and be creative.” Sharon and her husband, David, have one son and one granddaughter who live in Albuquerque. Their home is filled with Sharon’s creations, including large framed colcha embroidery for which David creates the woodwork and numerous smaller ceramic pieces.

(photo by Rebecca Abrams,October, 2020)