When longtime artist and gallery owner Karyn Gabaldon died last week at age 70 after a three-year battle with cancer, not only did she leave behind grief-stricken family members, she also left a hole in the soul of downtown Durango.
“She was such a force and my pal for 40 years,” said her husband, jazz musician and teacher Jeff Solon.
And “force” is no understatement: It takes a certain level of toughness and talent to be able to thrive as an artist and gallery owner in downtown Durango, something she did for more than 40 years. She began as a potter, and when she couldn’t do that anymore because of carpal tunnel syndrome – and perhaps a little boredom, Solon said – she switched over to painting with watercolors first, then ultimately settling on acrylics.
Solon said he and Gabaldon first met in the 1970s when both were students at Fort Lewis College. They began dating in the ’80s and “were inseparable, since 85.”
Reading through the messages left on her online obituary, it’s clear the residents of Durango – and beyond – were touched by the artist who not only painted beautiful pictures, but was equally known for her caring and generous personality.
“I think she was just very sincere, and she was very genuine, and she was very disarming,” Solon said. “You could just be who you are, and she didn’t have any airs about her. She just enjoyed everybody so much.
“She did influence a lot of people. What I’ve been hearing from people is amazing. She was super genuine,” he said. “And it wasn’t all these transactional relationships to get something. She was pure and she was true, and she held her corner downtown for a long time.”
Diane West, owner of Diane West Jewelry & Art, met Gabaldon through Durango’s art scene more than 20 years ago.
“To me, she was one of the nicest people I think in town,” she said. “We would go out for drinks and just talk about business. She just cared so deeply about the arts in this whole community. I think she just was so good at creating community and especially around the arts. And I know she’ll always be just remembered as that bright, kind, lovely person.”
Antonia Clark of Toh-Atin Gallery was involved with Gabaldon through the Gallery Association, which Gabaldon started. The two go back even further: When the Clark family opened their gallery in 1983, they featured her pottery.
“She made every one of us a personalized mug, every one of the employees, and my brother and I, and my mom,” Clark said. “You know, she was just always so generous and so grateful. … She was always somebody that I could lean on for support if I thought something was important, like with the Gallery Association, or how we got through COVID and all that. I always had an amazing respect for her and just always loved her perspective on life, her upbeat, positive, generous perspective on life.”
Once the World Was Perfect
Karyn Gabaldon sent this poem by Joy Harjo to Antonia Clark:
“The world was perfect, and we were happy in that world.
Then we took it for granted.
Discontent began a small rumble in the earthly mind.
Then Doubt pushed through with its spiked head.
And once Doubt ruptured the web,
All manner of demon thoughts
Jumped through –
We destroyed the world we had been given
For inspiration, for life –
Each stone of jealousy, each stone
Of fear, greed, envy, and hatred, put out the light.
No one was without a stone in his or her hand.
There we were,
Right back where we had started.
We were bumping into each other
In the dark.
And now we had no place to live, since we didn't know
How to live with each other.
Then one of the stumbling ones took pity on another
And shared a blanket.
A spark of kindness made a light.
The light made an opening in the darkness.
Everyone worked together to make a ladder.
A Wind Clan person climbed out first into the next world,
And then the other clans, the children of those clans, their children,
And their children, all the way through time –
To now, into this morning light to you.”
And what will Clark miss the most about her?
“Oh, that smile. That smile and that laugh,” she said. “You know, even just through the darkest of times … she just had a way of being grounded, and sharing that with other people. She just had such enthusiasm and such optimism. That's probably what I'll miss the most.”
Gabaldon didn’t want a memorial service, but in her obituary, it is requested that individuals do something kind for someone else.
katie@durangoherald.com
