Elaine SotoI am from New York, where I was born and raised. My parents migrated from Puerto Rico to New York City for a better life. Raised in the South Bronx, I worked in my mother's Beauty Parlor while attending City College. I received a Bachelor of Science n Education and a Ford Foundation Doctoral Fellowship in Education in 1972. I studied at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and received an Ed. M. I loved Psychology and continued studying at New York University where I received a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology in 1979. Driven by a desire to give back to my community, I worked in the South Bronx in Community Mental Health. It was during this time that I discovered my passion for art, taking an elective live drawing class in college. I painted independently, and when I finished my doctorate, I further honed my skills by studying art at the School of Visual Arts. In 1986, I became an artist in residence with the Puerto Rican Workshop (Taller Boricua) in El Barrio, a role that allowed me to make a significant difference in people's lives. Over the course of 15 years, I developed courses in expressive art, aiming to help individuals find their voice and communicate better with others. I taught these courses in the Public School and later at the New York Foundling Hospital, and at El Museo del Barrio to parents and children, witnessing firsthand the transformative power of art. While at Taller Boricua, I became interested in the Black Madonna, a positive symbol of my culture. I researched and painted the images of the Black Madonna that I found on my travels to Puerto Rico, Mexico, Spain, Italy, and France. I have exhibited my Black Madonnas nationally. In 1999, Union Theological Seminary did a retrospective exhibition of my work entitled "Divine Feminine." My paintings are on display on my website, elainesoto.com.At about the same time I started painting Black Madonna, I started writing about my life. According to Jungian Psychological theory, awareness of the Black Madonna in our lives moves us to explore our unconscious or dark experiences. I studied writing with Natalie Goldberg in her New York and Taos writing workshops. Her meditation and writing techniques helped me to access more unconscious memories and feelings. I published an article, "My Journey to the Black Madonna," in the Association of Hispanic Arts Newsletter 1998. Later, a short story I wrote about my experiences with racism won a publication prize in the Mighty Muse Writing Project in Colorado in 2004. In 2008, my short story won second place in the Southwest Writers' Halloween Memoir Writing Contest. I fell in love with New Mexico in 2002 when I attended my first National Latino Writers Conference. I moved to Albuquerque in 2004 and worked at UNM in the Employee Assistance Program. There, I run Expressive Art Workshops and use art and writing to help Staff and Faculty express themselves and deal with stress. Read More Read Less