(b. 1957)
David Nabor Lucero showed an artistic inclination early on. His mother, artist Victoria Rodríguez, would tape paper to the walls of their house so that he and his siblings would draw on the paper and not the walls. "I was always drawing scenes and comic book heroes," Lucero says. One of his first paintings was also for his mother--a Conan the Barbarian holding a bouquet of yellow flowers behind his back. "I was fascinated with the muscle structure," he laughs.
Shortly after a motorcycle accident, Lucero visited the annual Spanish Market, and left thinking, "This is what I want to do." He was so inspired, that he and his wife drove directly to a local home supply store where he bought wood and acrylic paints. He then went home and "painted like crazy." Eventually, after exploring and researching traditional techniques, he started using all natural pigments and materials in his art.
In 1998 Diane and Sandy Besser commissioned the San Miguel Archangel on exhibit in Arte y Amistad. The artist and the collectors collaborated closely on the design of the piece. Lucero's No Room at the Inn is a subtle retelling of the challenges faced by the Mother and stepfather of Jesus. Filled with detail (notice the rough innkeeper with the cigar in his mouth pointing away from his inn), the carved wood relief is set within a New Mexican landscape and incorporates traditional architectural elements.
