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Bio

Tauna Cole has lived in Las Cruces since arriving for graduate school in the summer of 1996 to pursue her MFA in Painting. She thought it was a temporary place while working on her graduate degree. Over the years, she built a life rooted in the community—finding her partner, Raul Dorn, raising a family, and serving as a 2-D and foundations instructor in the New Mexico State University Department of Art for 23 years before retiring. Tauna saw teaching as a vocation to keep her connected to art and her own studio practice. She spent 23 years teaching in the Department of Art at NMSU before retiring in the Fall of 2023. Over the years, Tauna has been a part of her community through teaching classes for adults and kids at the Las Cruces Museum School. Her side business, Art Paper Scissors, offered kids’ camps and classes. Deeply engaged in the local arts scene, she has been a member of the Border Artists for almost 20 years, recently joined ArtForms, and became a member of the co-op gallery, Agave Artists Gallery in 2026. In 2017, she became a certified yoga teacher. She has created several workshops combining yoga and creativity. Breath and meditation, two practices developed through yoga, have informed her current practice. Tauna exhibits her work locally and regionally. From 2021 through 2023, she was a member of La Mecha Contemporary in El Paso, Texas, before it closed in 2024. In 2024, she was selected as an emerging artist as part of the Harwood Art Center’s Surface Emerging Artist program. Tauna has shown her work regionally. Her work is in several collections in Idaho, Washington, New Mexico, and Texas.