Denise Weaver Ross is a multi-disciplinary artist, illustrator, muralist, and poet. With eight murals completed in the Albuquerque area where she lives and works, her visual and literary work has appeared in national and international anthologies. Denise’s artistic practice is steeped in mythological, natural, cultural, and historical themes, which she intricately layers to create rich, nuanced imagery. Her ability to fuse seemingly unrelated elements into new, meaningful forms has become a hallmark of her work. Among her notable series are House of Cards, Legendary Creatures, Art of the I Ching, and her latest project, Postcards to America.

In her House of Cards series, Denise reimagines a classic deck of cards in 56 large-scale works on paper. Spades become bones and fossils, diamonds are transformed into stars and constellations, clubs represent both real and symbolic trees, while hearts delve into personal experiences, drawing inspiration from Tarot and Egyptian symbols. Legendary Creatures explores myths and folklore from A to Z, while her 64 Hexagrams series merges symbolic imagery with the yin-yang lines of the ancient I Ching. In Postcards to America, Denise tells hidden stories of underrepresented communities and critiques systemic issues across the U.S. by juxtaposing the idealized imagery of vintage postcards with contemporary and historical realities.

Denise has lived and worked in Albuquerque since 1996, and her achievements include:

  • 2024: Completed her eighth mural at a private residence in Albuquerque’s Far Northeast Heights and had CALIFORNIA: The Homeless State selected for Arts North International 29 at the Hopkins Center for the Arts in Minnesota.
  • 2023: Completed two murals—Sea of Life at The Next Best Thing To Being There and Secret Garden at Marble & 15th Street, both in Albuquerque. Her work was also included in three nationally juried exhibitions in Georgia, Louisiana, and California.
  • 2022: Created her fifth mural at The Next Best Thing To Being There, a local Albuquerque shop. She represented the city in VIVID: A Sample of Today’s Albuquerque Art Scene at the Attleboro Arts Museum in Massachusetts. Her piece MICHIGAN: The Great Divide earned an Underdog Prize at the 2022 Arts Prize competition in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
  • 2021: Received an Honorable Mention for her piece Georgia: On My Mind at Dynamic: d’Art’s First Annual Contemporary Artist Exhibition in Norfolk, VA.
  • 2019: Completed a mural on the Orpheum Community Hub, celebrating the cultural history of Albuquerque’s Barelas neighborhood.
  • 2018: Led a team of artists in creating a 24×90-foot mural around Tortuga Gallery, part of Albuquerque’s Mural Fest, showcasing the flora and fauna of the Rio Grande Bosque. She was also named a Local Treasure by the Albuquerque Business Arts Association.
  • 2017: Commissioned to design the poster for ¡Globalquerque!, Albuquerque’s annual world music festival, and completed the mural We the People, which depicts cultural dancers along a 40-foot wall in the South Valley.
  • 2016: Won Best in Show for The Jacks of Jupiter from her House of Cards series at the Las Vegas International Juried Art Competition and exhibited her Legendary Creatures series at Tortuga Gallery.
  • 2015: Her House of Cards series was displayed at Tortuga Gallery, with three pieces exhibited in Times Square as part of the international SeeMe competition. She also completed her first mural at The Source in Albuquerque.

Denise holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and grew up in Wisconsin. She was bitten by the art bug at the age of 8 during a visit to the Milwaukee Museum of Art. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide. In addition to her visual art, she is a prolific poet, with numerous published poems and five books that blend her art and poetry.