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By Mike Cook
For the past 10-12 years, Las Cruces illustrator Daniela Bogart has been creating what she calls “fun and fanciful coloring books for when you’re grown up.”
In these adult coloring books, you will find beautiful and intricate illustrations of everything from insects to dinosaurs. And when Bogart colors in her own lines, her illustrations in cards, posters and prints and on the covers of her books come brilliantly alive.
Bogart’s husband, Darien, is also an artist. Like his wife, Darien uses the most vivid colors in his paintings.
“We are color fanatics,” Daniela Bogart said. “I can’t do beige.”
Darien had a show earlier this year at the Doña Ana Arts Council, and the couple was on their way to his show in Golden, Colorado in mid-August.
You might say the two were drawn to each other. They met in Florida 36 years ago as graphic artists while working side by side on ads to go above the lanes in a bowling alley.
“We hit it off immediately,” Daniela said.
They later worked together at the Sun-Sentinel newspaper in Deerfield, Florida before moving to Colorado 15 years ago to escape the hurricanes. The Bogarts first traveled to Las Cruces for one of Darien’s art exhibitions, decided they liked it and moved here permanently two and a-half years ago.
Neither artist has a studio; Daniela works at the living room coffee table, and Darien works in the couple’s bedroom.
“I work big,” Daniela said. “I have to sort of get on top of things to do it.”
Daniela is also an avid gardener. She put in the yard at the Bogarts’ Las Cruces home and spends many hours there.
“It’s like a little park,” Daniela said.
It was while she was laid up with a knee injury and couldn’t work outside that Daniela decided to try her hand at adult coloring books.
“I’ve always been an illustrator,” Bogart said. “I love line art.”
She draws and colors with Sharpies.
Bogart said her books are unique because of her illustrations and because of the quality of the paper and the bindings she uses, as well as the books’ large size.
Her coloring books sell at several museums in Colorado, and even a wolf sanctuary, and Bogart is hoping to find sites to sell them in New Mexico. She would also like to have them available in national parks across the country and is planning a coloring book focused on New Mexico’s animals.
Bogart also has written six children’s books, featuring her own poetry, which are awaiting her illustrations before publication. She was also one of six Las Cruces artists who created illustrations for the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs’ 2022 children’s activity book. She randomly received the letter S and drew a scorpion for the book, which will be available free of charge statewide.
Daniela and Darien are also regular vendors at the Farmers and Crafts Market of Las Cruces.
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