Texas Tech University

Former School of Art Director, Professor Todd DeVriese, has left TTU’S SoA to become Dean of the Department of Art at St. Cloud University in St. Cloud, Minnesota. As we began the search for a new director, CVPA Dean Carol Edwards announced last week that Professor Tina  Fuentes, (BFA and MFA, North Texas State University) the Associate Director and a Professor in Art  (Painting) will serve as the new interim SoA Director. She assumed her duties formally July 20.

Tina Fuentes

Although she was born in San Angelo, Fuentes grew up in Odessa.  She began teaching art in the Texas Public Schools; teaching next at Waco Art Center; followed by the University of Albuquerque and the University of New Mexico; and finally is a student favorite drawing and painting professor here since 1986 – 23 years.  She has participated extensively as an exhibition juror and served as a member of the Visual Arts Panels of New Mexico State Arts Division and the Texas Commission for the Arts.  She has also served as juror and board member of the Albuquerque Arts Board 1% for Art Program and more.

Fuentes lives in Lubbock with her husband, Paz Molinar. They have a daughter Erica and son-in-law, Greg Graves who have an eighteen-month-old son, Cash Kane. “He is the sweetest thing,” exclaims Fuentes.

In addition to being an educator, Fuentes  is a practicing artist with her own expansive studio. Many would call her a pioneering Latina woman who has gained much recognition for her art. Some examples of these accolades are an invitational one-woman show “Capas y Luz,” Ellen Noel Art Museum, Odessa, TX.; “53rd Grace Museum Competition,” Grace Museum, Abilene, TX. (1st place award ); “One Woman Show: Dibujos y Pinturas de la Desnuda,” Cabrillo College Gallery, Aptos, CA; and the invitational “One Woman Show,” San Antonio Art Institute. She was also the subject of a 1990 KTX-TV, Lubbock, Texas, production, entitled “El Arte de Tina Fuentes” which was accepted by the National Education Television Association and made available nationally to all PBS stations.

This is the second time that Fuentes has been tapped to serve as Interim Director. “I am here to help and serve the SoA program,” she explains.