For Patrice “Tessy” Schooley ’69, a lifetime of creating has led to new art that she calls her retablos – paintings of pets with monk robes, halos and wings. She titles them as guardians of ideas like love, hope, joy, celebration and loyalty. In a few photos of special orders she shares, there’s also Nico, the Guardian of Toys, and Kura, the Guardian of the Pack.

“I have a whole line of different dogs that I do,” Schooley said in a March 2022 interview. “I also do special orders where people send me a picture of their own dog and choose what they want their dog to be the guardian of.”

She cuts the wood for a retablos with a bandsaw, creates an original drawing, and then varnishes and sands the piece. People find her work at Doodlets, a store in Santa Fe where they can purchase a piece or learn about special orders to create one of their own dogs or cats.

“I always tell people that retablos from Mexico were originally made as a way of honoring saints and thanking them for protection,” she said. “The Franciscan monks brought them to New Mexico and that is why my animal guardians wear monk robes, have halos and sometimes have wings. This is my way of thanking them for their protection and devotion.”

The first retablo Schooley made was a gift – a dog in a woodworking studio with a hammer made for her brother-in-law. “They resonated with people,” she said and the fun, new business venture was born.

Schooley has produced art her entire life. She earned a bachelor’s degree in fine art at the University of New Mexico. She sold her paintings at arts and crafts shows for about five years until she opened a boutique, Chelsea Morning, in Albuquerque. She poured her creative insights into the boutique for 25 years with clothing, gifts and accessories in locations from Hoffantown to Mossman Center. “It was a romantic and very sweet little store,” she said. 

She closed the store in 2009 with the intention of devoting her time again to art, specifically illustration. She has since written and illustrated The Sand Mermaid, a children’s book, and illustrated two books for author Lisa Bear Goldman: The Proud Little Burro and The Gift of Wonder. She is currently writing and illustrating another book about a unicorn. Her books are available at the Treasure House Book Store in Old Town.

It was as a child that Schooley’s love of art began. “It was there ever since I could remember,” she said. “My very first memory is of laying under my mom’s low wooden coffee table, and drawing on the underside of it.”

By the time she joined St. Pius X High School as a sophomore, doodling and drawing took up much space in her notebooks. She took the one art class offered then at St. Pius X by Lon Vickers. She remembers him as a good and encouraging teacher.

Schooley, who had attended Our Lady of Fatima and then public school for ninth grade, appreciated St. Pius X. “It was hugely different from public school for me,” she said. “There was more attention, it was easier to make friends, and people were so much kinder. That made a huge difference.This was just the right fit for me.”

Schooley’s work can be found at www.patriceschooley.com and on Amazon.