cnmchronicle

Bringing Poetry Back to the Community

By Stephen Landis, CNM Student, November 24, 2025

These days, when people think of poetry, they usually think of something printed on deco art, next to a “Live, Laugh, Love” sign; basically a canvas print you’d find at Hobby Lobby. Even at CNM, where we have amazing outlets like the Leonardo Magazine, poetry tends to stay in the circles of people who already love it.

When I first started writing poetry, most people were encouraging of my creative expression, but I could tell they thought I was practically diving into old Shakespearean love sonnets. They didn’t see poetry as a way to express struggles, religious faith, humor, or social commentary.

I didn’t want that to be the cultural viewpoint of such a beautiful craft. Poetry has shaped cultures, challenged world leaders, and given people language for moments too heavy to explain. There’s a reason it’s often amongst the first things targeted when a society burns books. This art form deserves better than being reduced to decoration.

So I decided to bring poetry into real spaces again.

I’ve been partnering with local bookstores and my church to make my work accessible to people who value community over online monopolies, such as I do. Supporting local matters. Not just for the local economy, but for the culture we build around it. My first book signing in May of this year brought a huge crowd, which reminded me that people do care about poetry when it’s placed in front of them with intention. With this, I hope to have more events in the future.

I’m also working on a children’s chapter book based on one of my poems. If we want poetry to mean something in the future, we have to spark imagination early. Kids deserve stories that stir creativity.

My recent collection, Grace: And Other Poems, became part of this effort, as one more way to show that poetry can still speak to the deeper parts of life. For me, the included poetry is a bridge between the physical, mental, and spiritual. It’s a way to talk about trials in life, my personal religious faith, the longing for a better future, and hope, with nothing but honesty. Scripture inspires much of what I write, reminding me that grace isn’t earned; it’s given. Words have the power to carry that truth farther than we expect.

At the end of the day, I’m not trying to sell anything. I’m trying to revive something.

Poetry isn’t meant to sit on a wall or a shelf. It’s a voice. It’s a historical record of culture. It’s social commentary. It’s laughter. It’s a mirror. And if I can help even a few people rediscover that, then every poem I write is worth it.

Celebrate creativity and community at the Spring Visiting Writer event & Leonardo Release Party

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By Leonardo Magazine Staff

The CNM Main Campus Library will host an evening of literary and artistic celebration on April 10, 2025, from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. The Spring Visiting Writer Event & Leonardo Release Party promises to be a fun night featuring Albuquerque’s new Poet Laureate, Damien Flores, along with CNM students whose poetry, creative non-fiction, fiction, art, music, and multimedia work is featured in the 2025 issue of Leonardo, CNM’s student-produced fine arts and literary magazine.

Before the evening’s festivities, which will include a reading by Flores, whose poetry has earned him numerous accolades, including Albuquerque’s 7^th Poet Laureate, he will offer a free poetry workshop earlier in the day from 2:00 to 3:30 PM at the Main Campus Library Classroom (SRC 201K). The workshop is open to students of all experience levels, providing a valuable opportunity for anyone interested in honing their creative writing skills.

The Spring Visiting Writer Event & Leonardo Release Party is made possible thanks to the support of the Executive Council of Students (ECOS), the CNM Co-Curricular Learning Initiative, and the Governing Board’s General Activities Account (GAA).

This event is a celebration of creativity, community, and the talented students who contribute to CNM’s vibrant culture. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to engage with fellow students, pick up a copy of Leonardo 2025, and be inspired by this creative movement at CNM.

Rolling with the honors at CNM

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By Truett Jackson

Staff Reporter

On an unseasonably warm November afternoon, Stiffi Ysatam sat at the long-backed wooden Starbucks benches at the CNM Bookstore, assiduously working toward the upcoming end of term and sipping her coffee.

With the thoughtfulness and work ethic of someone who knows where they are headed, Ysatam carries an executive presence.

“I’ve always held leadership positions in everything I’ve done, and I’ve started an organization here in New Mexico. It’s called the Dennis Chavez Scholars. The members are from a legislative program that happens every summer, and we work with UNM”, she said.

Before forming the group with peers at the National Hispanic Institute in 2023, Ysatam had been quite busy since migrating to the U.S. with family from the Philippines. There, she had roles in school clubs as diverse as treasurer of the Arts Club, as a vocalist, photographer, and as her school’s social media editor.

She continued her passion for participation at Valley High School here in Albuquerque, then on to CNM, where she is, as might be expected, on the dean’s list.

Naturally, when she enrolled at CNM, she looked for opportunities to grow and connect. This led her to look into joining Phi Theta Kappa, a national honor society with a chapter here at CNM.

“The chapter that’s in CNM is called Alpha Upsilon Chi”, she said, telling me that it was initially the scholarships and waived application fees the organization provides that attracted her.

“A lot of universities have application fees. So, for example, if I were to apply to the University of Denver, since I’m a member, they waive that application fee.”

Ysatam says that she has been surprised by how big the society is, with chapters not only in each state, but all around New Mexico. Being involved has given her the chance to travel and network with peers that share her tenaciousness and acumen.

“A few months ago, we went to Southeast New Mexico College and got to meet a lot of officers from different chapters all over New Mexico. Next semester we’re going to Kansas City, Missouri, for a convention. And that’s what I’m looking forward to, because I’m already making connections with people who are in the same club from all over the U.S. on LinkedIn.”

She went on to tell me about all the supportive areas of the club, and how she has seen it benefit not only her, but many students with different backgrounds and goals.

“Another thing that really got me into it was the PTK Edge courses. It’s for different things that will help college students, like first-generation students, to navigate through the college experience. So, we have courses for employment, which teach you how to apply for a job, how to network.”

She says there are courses for many other things, like healthcare, help with transferring to other universities, and research.

“The research courses are mainly for people who are working on Honors in Action projects that each chapter works on. Our Honors in Action project is that we are giving books to the public libraries here in Albuquerque.” Ysatam is excited and proud of her accomplishments with the group. She perks up whenever asked about their activities. Since becoming president of CNM’s PTK chapter, she now takes a leading role in these ventures.

“We do a lot of stuff! So that’s the Honors in Action project, then we also have a college project, where we work with the actual college. So, we’re working with Wellness CNM in early December to distribute stuff.”

She says they are excited to work with Habitat for Humanity in the upcoming months, and that sometimes they get to have fun with it.

“For fundraising for our organization, we’re doing bingo! We had our first bingo recently, and it was really successful. I’d say we raised quite a lot from it!”

Telling about the connections she has made with not only her peers and advisors, but the CNM community at large, she says that there is a sense of gratification that comes with it all.

“We’re not just focusing on personal development, but we’re also involving ourselves in bettering the community,” she said.

“I’m gaining more experience; I’m improving as a person. I could see myself starting a hospital in the future, we’ll have to see. And even though I’m already let’s say, a doctor by then, I still intend to help out with this specific chapter, because this is where I’m from. I’m gonna give back, because it’s helped me a lot.”

She says that she sees the group as an ally and a bridge to the future. “I’ve been a member for less than a year, so I’m still learning about the whole organization. I found out that membership doesn’t end when you graduate from your two-year college. You could be in your PHD degree, and they still have stuff out there for you.”

There are specific requirements for membership, which can be found on CNM’s website. When asked if there was something Ysatam would like to say to CNM students, she kept it simple.

“Tell them to join us! Usually when people think of organizations in schools that it’s like extra work. It is extra work, especially since I’m an officer, but it’s not the type of work that makes you exhausted. I feel fulfilled. You get to work with all these awesome people and learn from them.”

To learn more about Phi Theta Kappa, you can visit www.ptk.org, or email ptk@cnm.edu with any questions.

Regulating, then educating at CNM

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By Truett Jackson

Staff Reporter

As Wellness CNM continues to expand across CNM, opportunities are arising for students, staff, and faculty to not only keep themselves and their families safe, warm and fed, but also to understand how to take care of our minds and become better learners.

On a warm, beautiful Tuesday in mid-September, Donna Lucero, the Director of Training at All Faiths Children’s Advocacy Center, gathered with CNM students and Wellness staff in the Ted Martinez building at Main campus.

The lecture, presented by Lucero, which ran over the span of a long lunchtime, was an incredibly informative, deep dive into cutting-edge brain science on the human stress response system, and the importance of keeping said system regulated.

The way the brain is constructed, explained Lucero, starts from the bottom up, and from the inside out. There are essentially four parts to it: the brainstem/cerebrum, the diencephalon, the limbic, and the cortex.

Lucero taught that all information is essentially screened by the lowest parts of the brain, like a TSA agent does before letting someone fly, for any danger or possibility of threat.

If any threat is detected, be it real or perceived, the brain will go into either a fight/flight mode, which has us produce adrenaline and heightens senses, or it will go into freeze mode, which basically routes blood flow and energy to our core, putting us into a survival mode.

If our brain is in standby mode, or it is busy scanning for threats, the gathering, storing, and learning of information by the cortex is put on hold. Simply put, you aren’t going to retain any of the stuff you showed up to class for today if your mind is frazzled.

Through Lucero’s lecture, we learned that when we feel calm and safe, our brains are open to connection and ready to process data. This is known as being ‘regulated’, while a mental state of chaos, fear or paralysis is what is known as being ‘dysregulated’.

Lucero educated the group on what trauma cues are, which can be anything — a noise, a smell, a color; whatever our brain associates with a perceived threat, and that trauma comes back as a reaction, not a memory. Fundamental to Lucero’s philosophy is the idea that you need to first regulate, then educate.

Lucero went on to give the group tools to close the stress response cycle, and highlighted the importance of keeping one another regulated, as two dysregulated people trying to solve a problem together is difficult at best.

Regulating yourself via exercise, breathwork, laughter, or even a good cry keeps us open and ready to learn and developing ‘trauma-sensitive lenses’ that can help our student mind respond to adversity with empathy, compassion, and skill-building.

Lucero ended the lecture with a reminder that encountering a kind face and a soothing voice can dramatically alter the way we feel, and that aligned, focused attunement with others can shift us out of disorganized, fearful states and help us advance in life and thrive at CNM.For more information, or to request future guest lectures, students can contact Wellness CNM at 505-224-3000.

City seeks to improve bus access for students

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By Truett Jackson

Staff Reporter

Student life at CNM has been back to full speed for some time now, and ABQ Ride is implementing plans to improve rider safety and return to pre-pandemic service across the city of Albuquerque. Expanded access to transportation for students, faculty, and staff will translate to savings of time, money and energy for our Burqué community.

As a part of this process, the City is asking for input from its citizens on their needs and concerns. With CNM’s campuses spread throughout the city, more access for Suncats means a better, more well-oiled CNM machine. More response from you means more service and more options. You can find the survey for the Ride Forward Plan here.

Getting to class on time is great, and you should feel safe getting there. You can find that survey here.

ABQ Ride is already taking the needs of its college-bound passengers into consideration and is restarting service on the 790 Coors/University route^. They would also like to remind students that the bus is still free, and that they are working on a multi-pronged approach for public safety with more initiatives to come for public safety.

Showing up for a successful Summer Term

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By Truett Jackson

Staff Reporter

Summertime can be filled with endless distractions. The kids are out of school, the weather is beautiful, and work doesn’t stop. Add in the fact that the term itself is shorter than the others, and students can quickly start to feel like they’re falling behind.

“I didn’t think that taking ten credits in the summer would be so much work,” said Stacy G., a 22-year-old Radiology Tech student at CNM. “The work started to pile up, but I’ve reorganized my time, and now it’s getting a lot easier.”

Doris Gasangwa, a first-year medical student, has some tips for her classmates that she says have come to help her get through the summer.

“Create a study space,” she said. “Having a dedicated study area will really help build the separation that you need in order to put you in a study mindset.”

Gasangwa says that it’s ok to be selfish with your time when you’re studying. “It’s OK to say ‘no’ to plans!”

She says that the most important thing is to take care of yourself, and it’s OK to say no to things that stress you out, things that divide your focus, and people in your life that can be energy vampires or time wasters.

“The list could go on!”, said Gasangwa. “Someone very wise once told me that it’s OK to say ‘no’, and later on, it’s always easier to change a ‘no’ into a ‘yes’ then to change a ‘yes’ into a ‘no’.”

She says that it is vitally important to take care of yourself emotionally, mentally, and physically. Making time to work out, to talk with friends, and checking in on those that you care about all add to your personal wellness and emphasizes that your own health is just as important as your future patients’.

As obstacles arise and the fear of missing out creeps in, summer can bring on the stress. Taking time for self-care and sticking to a schedule can mean the difference between an ‘A’ and a ‘D’.

“Keep up good communication with your professors and classmates,” said Stacy G. “Make sure to put everything on the calendar, and don’t miss those due dates, even for the smaller assignments. And don’t ever assume that online classes will be easier, because they’re not.”

She also wants to remind fellow students that there are many resources that they can utilize right on CNM campus to help them stay on track, such as visiting with a tutor, seeing an advisor, and starting a study group.

“I love my anatomy study group we’ve set up,” she said. “Since I don’t have time to socialize too much, I get to learn and have fun at the same time. It’s just once a week, but it really helps.”

If a student is having major difficulties and doesn’t know where to turn, Wellness CNM is always a great way to find support and is always confidential.

To find more info about tutoring, advisors, or Wellness CNM, students can call 505-224-3000.

Guiding CNM’s educators in understanding mental health

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By Truett Jackson

Staff Reporter

Charnia Parrish and Nikki Purkeypile are advisement staff and part-time instructors at CNM who are very keen on mental health first-aid and are working to share these techniques with other faculty, staff, and administrators.

Purkeypile, who was first trained in this area eleven years ago, said that last year Wellness CNM committed itself to having in-house, permanent trainers in mental health first-aid.

“I think that Charnia and I are both people who are very passionate about this, and so people kind of found us somehow … people identified that we were passionate about this and asked us if we wanted to become certified trainers.”, said Purkeypile.

Parrish, who co-heads the program, said that this is an area that fit her expertise. “I have a background working in psych, so that coupled with my major, this was the logical thing to do, and I was happy to do so. I completed the training, like Nikki did, about a year ago. I think of this as an expansion of Wellness CNM’s services; in addition to the other wraparound services that they’re re-introducing, having mental health first-aid for staff and faculty was a logical extension of that, as not only a way to help students, but also ourselves and each other.”

The training itself involves a whole day, in-person training with the instructors, as well as pre-work that the teacher-students study beforehand. A specific technique used is referred to with the acronym ALGEE.

This technique is where staff and faculty are trained to first approach and assess. They determine whether there is a risk of suicide or harm, and assist. They then listen, non-judgmentally, to the student, and give reassurance and information. The next step is to encourage them to seek the appropriate professional help, and further encourage them in ways such as self-help and other support strategies.

“Following that format, whatever steps are appropriate at that time, allows us to possibly extend help to someone; letting them know that there is hope for recovery.”, explained Parrish.

Purkeypile agreed that the ALGEE technique has been shown to produce positive outcomes. “ALGEE first-aid is also important for early intervention before something is a crisis, so it starts from the regular concern side of the spectrum, to more concerned, to crisis. So, intervening early leads to better outcomes and more hope of recovery. Just like a physical injury … many of us have needed first aid in our lives. So, it’s a similar premise: what can we do immediately, to help someone right now? And so that can prevent worse outcomes, but on the other end, it can create better outcomes. Get people support early.”

The pair noted that they believe in providing additional supports wherever possible for those in need, identifying and recognizing when someone is in crisis, and granting grace wherever possible. They also see a successful future for the course and its outcomes.

“I would like to see more staff and faculty get trained. I think we’ve had more of the administrative side trained than faculty, and I see that interest is expressed. In my ideal world, if we are teaching three to four classes a year, I would like after four years for us to have trained most of the people here. That’s what I’d love to see.”, said Parrish.

“Four years?”, commented Purkeypile, “I love that.”

CNM’s Mental health first-aid course is open to faculty, staff, and administrators. Part-time faculty is encouraged to reach out to their associate dean for eligibility info. All information regarding future courses and enrollment can be found by contacting Wellness CNM at 505-224-3000.

Nourishing community at CNM

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By Truett Jackson

Staff Reporter

Jesse James Sanchez III is a full-time employee at CNM. He can be found, most days, answering calls for the college’s main line, assisting students with anything from getting a parking permit to applying for financial aid.

In addition to this work and his schedule of classes, he can be found at CNM’s main campus library every week, where he never misses an opportunity to assist with the school’s Food Pantry offering.

“I’m the same as the people that come in here,” Sanchez explained. “I’m also a student. I get that things are stressful and hectic, and there are ways that CNM does a lot. It puts the community in community college.”

Sanchez, who has been volunteering for over a year with the pantry, explained that his duties include stocking incoming purchases and donations, loading them into bags, and being a friendly, familiar face to his peers at CNM.

“We have places where you can come and get food weekly,” Sanchez Said. “I’ve always seen the good that comes out of a food pantry.”

CNM opened its Food Pantry in December of 2021on Main campus, serving 100-200 students each week. The pantries expanded to satellite campus locations, and in 2023 over 1,000 students visited the pantries. In 2024, pantries expanded to include community fridges at each location.

“The food pantry is a service that is accessible to all students that provide a CNM student I.D. or number,” said Isaac Coronado, a Student Ambassador who works with Wellness CNM.

“This resource is completely free. It doesn’t cost anything except a few moments of your time. A student has the option to pick from a large variety of non-perishables and can take home a bag of produce,” explained Coronado, “Here on Main campus, we run this pantry every Wednesday. The other pantries that we have are at the Westside and South Valley campuses.”

Since adding the Food Pantry to the list of resources under the Wellness CNM umbrella last year, the organization says that it is just one of the myriad ways to connect with students and help to ensure they have all they need to thrive at the school while they work toward a better future.

“Wellness CNM is a great resource. So many students are forced to pay for classes.

Having fresh veggies and things to eat throughout the week is a great resource,” Coronado said. “Coming from a community that has difficulties that we’re all aware of, we’re trying to help with those. Whether it’s housing, clothing, transportation… we’re going to assist you, my department specifically, in those difficulties.”

Coronado explained that the Food Pantry is open to all students, staff, and faculty at CNM. He also wants people to reach out to him or his colleagues regarding any areas they may have need for a helping hand.

“Being a part of Wellness CNM, this is exactly what we embody. When you schedule a meeting with us, whether it’s for basic needs or mental health, we will provide a safe and confidential environment,” said Coronado.

The Food Pantry at CNM’s main campus is open to all CNM students every Wednesday during full-term semesters from 3-6 p.m. and is located inside the library. For more information, as well as hours and dates for other campuses, contact Wellness CNM at 505-224-3106.

Emerging artists exhibit works at CNM

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By Truett Jackson

Staff Reporter

Students from CNM’”s art department are celebrating the completion of the capstone to their degree. The Portfolio Development course, instructed by Rachel Popowcer, empowers students in the business side of art and enables students to begin their careers as professionals.

On a breezy Friday evening in late March, the graduating class exhibited their completed works in CNM’”s gallery at Main Campus in a display they have named Behind Closed Eyes.

“It really is the business of being an artist,” said Ms. Popowcer. “I take them on field trips to galleries, we talk about social media, we talk about how to put together your portfolio, we do the bio and artist statement, then I proofread and edit that.”

She said that she enjoys helping students gain the knowledge and confidence they can use to know their worth as an artist. Doing an oral artist presentation for their entire class and consolidating their work into a focused series is part of that process.

“It has to be a series, because that’s part of also being a professional artist, is starting to focus in on your work,” she explained, “starting to hone in a little bit more on theme and what they want to do with a series of art, so that they can start to apply to things.”

She encourages them not to pigeonhole themselves, but also to define who and what they are as an artist. “My goal is to help them consolidate all their artistic information into something that they can go out into the world with professionally. A student from last semester got into a gallery, and it was so easy for him because he had everything that he needed.”

“This class has really helped me to focus more on my art, and to prepare and organize everything,” said Fakhrossadat Zarifkarfard, who hails from Shiraz, Iran. “It’s very helpful for me, this class.” She said, explaining the Persian influences in her art and the gorgeous frames from her homeland she has displayed her work in. “It’s my first work, and I love them.”

Briana Lee has become more assured in her work since coming to CNM. “I didn’t really know what I wanted to do,” she said, showing her mixed-media collage, Majestic Being. “It’s finally let me show my work, instead of keeping it hidden away.”

“I started out with a series of eight”, said Gerry Beard of their work, When the Music Died. “The whole theme of all of them is events, whether natural or man-made, which basically caused the music to stop… culture to stop.”

Beard explores the impact of events such as the 9/11 attack, the bombing of Hiroshima, and other heart-stopping events in history. “That’s Buddy Holly’s plane crash,” she explained of one particularly harrowing scene. “I was collecting a bunch of reference photos, but some of them showed bodies, so I just put guitars instead.”

Aaron Schmidt, who designed the poster art for Behind Closed Eyes, has shown particular growth, despite being an accomplished artist prior to the program. “Rachel really helped me because she pushed me to try oil painting,” they said. “I’ve been painting with acrylics for probably six or seven years, but I’ve never really delved into oil painting.”

They said that learning the business side of art has been an invaluable experience, and that having such a dedicated professor makes a huge impact. “She’s helped a lot with that. Also, doing the technical stuff, like putting together and artist bio and other things you need to have as a professional artist.”

Schmidt said that it is an exciting time to be a talented newcomer in Albuquerque’s art scene. “I think it’s definitely growing,” they said. “When I first started doing art and taking it seriously, it was quite a bit smaller.”

With the culmination of their student art career at an end, it is an exciting, yet bittersweet time for the students and instructors in Ken Chappy Hall. Many have had years-long relationships with their peers and professors.

“About half of the class I’ve had as students before,” remarked Popowcer as she readies to send her fledgling expert artisans out into the world. “It’s nice to see the evolution, and I like having a continuing relationship with my students, who are wonderful.” Behind Closed Eyes can be experienced at CNM’”s Main Campus art gallery, in KC Building, Room 103. Call 505-224-3000 for more info.

Art and science collide at CNM

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By Truett Jackson

Staff Reporter

Stefan Jennings Batista had always been entranced by images of the American West growing up as a Catholic kid in South Florida. By the time he had made his way to New Mexico, he had already established himself as an artist, and was eager to utilize the vast canvas of the Southwest in his own compositions.

“A lot of these images are a product of my fascination with landscape photography from the 1800’s that was very much inspired by Romantic-era American painting, and that movement in art kind of co-opted faith and magic in order to legitimize ownership of the land,” says Batista of his photography installation, ‘Tiny Ocean’.

Though he does not consider himself a religious person nowadays, Batista’s lifelong fascination with the ritual and mystery of his upbringing in the church are immediately apparent in his works.

“That sort of shaped how I saw imagery and symbolism visually, and I spent my whole childhood thinking I was going to be an artist, so that experience kind of informed how I look at painting… how images feel important and feel special, and how I read them. Looking back, I think that background set in motion the way I read pictures and then construct them.”

Batista considered himself to be a science-minded kid, and the fusions of art, science and religion are conspicuous in his creations.

“I wanted to go into the sciences and have art be on the side, and eventually that switched for me,” he said. “I’ve been interested, for a long time, in this fine line between how faith is this desire for understanding and purpose, and in a similar sense, I think that science works in the same way.”

Eventually, Batista found that he had a love of being expressive and was adept at creating images. “I went into art. When I started thinking critically about artmaking, especially in a theory and fine art context, I realized that both science and my background in Catholicism were kind of making their way into the pictures that I enjoy making, and I was calling upon symbolism in the works that I was making, and I couldn’t really escape that. I think now, making art, I get to explore that past, and those desires for information, for knowledge, for purpose, for meaning. And it all comes back to the sublime — this desire for placing myself relative to the infinite.”

Batista’s artistic trek led him to study out East before making his journey to the West. “I went to a college in South Florida called the Ringling College of Art and Design. That school is heavily commercial in terms of its education. You get an art history background, you get theory, but the fundamentals and the output is primarily geared toward commercial audiences. So, I had a background in fashion, product photography, as well as fine art/conceptual art. When I left there, I’d pretty much dedicated myself to a commercial direction, and I worked on that for the next six years until I went to graduate school.”

He worked professionally in commercial photo studios, which took him to New York and Miami. “I ended up having a love/hate relationship with it, because the commercial world can be kind of nasty, but on the other hand, it’s a living.”

Batista found himself with a deep love photography, which first brought him to New Mexico. He said he went back to grad school because he wanted to spend time making art and liked the idea of teaching.

“I really found value in the deep art of photography, and its plethora of utilities. I ended up applying to graduate school in New Mexico, and I came from Florida to UNM. I spent three years there in the graduate program and got a graduate degree in Art Studio, with a focus in photography.”

His studies at UNM led him to realize that he had found a path for his passion and career goals to occupy the same space. “I realized the utility of photography as a commercial tool, and so I was like, I can make art, but I can also have a career and make a living.”

This path took him back East, before once again becoming entrapped by the Land of Enchantment.

“After I graduated, I spent a couple semesters teaching at a college in Southeast Tennessee called the University of the South, in Sewanee. After my time was done there, I came back to New Mexico,” he said, “when I moved back, I applied for teaching positions and I landed a job here at CNM, which I’ve loved ever since. I’ve continued to develop a commercial practice here in photography, illustration, design, and I’m also lucky enough to also get to teach that.”

Asked what guidance he would have for prospective students who are interested in learning more about art at CNM, Batista says that in seeking knowledge of art one can have various ways to approach it, depending on whether their curiosity is based on becoming a professional, creating art for art’s sake, as a stress-release tool, therapy, a side-hustle, or something else.

“I think it depends on what people have proclivities to. That being said, I always encourage people, if they’re trying to get into art, don’t do something you hate, but I always encourage people to get out of their comfort zone.” He said he likes to see people to try something they’re afraid of, something they would have liked to have given a chance. To push themselves to go beyond their own expectations.

In the Art department at CNM, the reasons for students seeking this kind of instruction in art are myriad, whether they are for gaining a deeper understanding of their current field of study, as a requirement for their major, or just to learn and have fun.

“I’m a communications person, I wanna know about photography so I can apply that in my career,” he said, noting many of the various programs CNM offers.

“How can I use these different modes of working to say something, right? And maybe from there, someone can say, OK, I really don’t like working with texture, I don’t like 3D, but I really do like drawing, or love installation, or photography’s something I want to learn more about.”

In addition to hopeful pro– photographers, it is not at all uncommon for Batista to have students from the medical field in his classes. “We’re offering a 2^nd-level photography class as of this past year. Myself and the other photo instructor here, Angelika Rinnhofer, whose work is here, switch off teaching,” he said, pointing to the stunningly opulent, mesmerizing work of his colleague in KC building that currently he shares the installation space with.

“Some of my best students every year are from the medical fields,” he told us, “It’s nice because it balances, again going back to our earlier conversation, this very informed, technical, scientific approach to their careers…they get to use that in learning the camera, but then they get to be creative, artistic, emotional.” He said. “I would assume that it probably creates this wonderful balance for them. So, if for any other reason, maybe it’s just nice to get outside of yourself.”

When asked where the best starting point for people wanting to expand their horizons and explore art and its place in their lives, Batista tells us that CNM is an ideal setting.

“It’s nice that it’s accessible for people that maybe either aren’t able to or are unsure if they should invest in this really expensive, university-track kind of approach to gaining an education in something. I have students that are really young, or much older that the traditional college student that are all able to access this stuff, course by course, semester by semester, on their own terms. And do it without this sort of burden. And they get to use it for therapy, for fun, for an escape. Or hey, I’m gonna use this in my career, and I don’t have to put myself into debt. I appreciate that. I try to keep that in mind when I teach to students with a diversity of needs and perspectives.”

On what Batista would like folks to take away from ‘Tiny Ocean’, he says that it all comes back to faith, science, and the unknown.

“We find ourselves with these systems of science, of faith, whatever… to try to define and articulate and grasp the unknown. And then when we have it, we feel empty, and we need to look into another abyss to feel something. To me, a lot of these images are like that precipice. Of seeing something that maybe represents wanting more and knowing something… that feeling, what does it look like? That’s when I start to borrow these symbols from how I’ve experienced that precipice in my life.”

With all the answers apparently readily available at the fingertips of humanity, Batista says that it is now more important than ever to hold on to our sense of mystery and wonder.

“There’s this human need to know things. And then, the more you know, I think, the more empty we feel. We need more, want to know more, to understand more. But at the same time, especially right now, we’re living in a time where it feels like we can just go find the answer to something anywhere. Like there’s no more mystery left. That’s why we’re pushing so hard to go to these new horizons. I think that’s always been human nature, and so I think at the very top of all these images, for me at least, is a self-reflection of that human nature to desire the unknown, to desire mystery. But at the same time, to try to kill it. There’s a duality there that I find really fascinating and beautiful, but it’s also tragic.”

The installations ‘Tiny Ocean, by Stefan Jennings Batista, and ‘Menschenkunde, Felsenfest, Seelensucht’, by Angelika Rinnhofer are currently on display in the state-of-the-art gallery in KC building on CNM’s main campus. Contact sbatista1@cnm.edu or call 505-224-3000 for more information.