After more than two years of hard work and dedication to her passion for representing the beauty of local wildlife, Las Cruces artist Kathy Morrow will celebrate her finished rock art mural in front of the New Mexico State University's Golf Course with an official ribbon-cutting in April.

The ribbon-cutting will take place at 4 p.m., Thursday, April 3, at the NMSU Golf Course clubhouse, 3000 Herb Wimberly Drive.

Morrow began making animal designs with colorful rocks in 2017 at the Tortugas dam, but in 2021, she had to remove and relocate the rock art by order of the Elephant Butte Irrigation District. Nine months of moving and disassembling the rocks to the NMSU Golf Course followed, then she began the 17-month process to redesign and rebuild the mural with the help of many volunteers.

"It was like painting a giant coloring book with rocks," Morrow said. "In early April 2024, we were working on a pile of rocks filling a few bare spots. The rocks were all gone and the volunteers and I looked at each other and said, 'Oh my gosh, I think we are done!' It was hard to believe that we had removed all the original art from the Tortugas dam and moved it to NMSU in 10 months and then started over by building 26 animals with rocks, tiles and glass."

In total, 130 volunteers helped bring to life the wildlife animal rock art, following outlines Morrow created and filling in sections with different colored rocks. The mural displays 26 animals, and the area covers a little more than a half an acre.

"To see this project come together was amazing," said Pat Gavin, director of the NMSU PGA Golf Management Program. "Our PGA Golf Management students were 'all-in' on helping Kathy finish the project, and I was so overwhelmed when I saw the eagle on the bottom left corner of this masterpiece. That was so incredible what NMSU Golf Course Director Jason White did, and even more so for Kathy to incorporate the Gage Wings as a tribute to my late son, Gage."

NMSU's PGA Golf Management program will promote the event and have printed posters and postcards of Morrow's art available for purchase. Proceeds will go toward the Gavin M. Memorial Marketing Endowed Scholarship. The scholarship benefits undergraduate students majoring in marketing. Morrow will also sign posters and postcards at the event.

Members of the NMSU and Las Cruces communities are encouraged to join and support this event.

The full article can be seen at https://newsroom.nmsu.edu/news/las-cruces-artist-completes--celebrates-rock-mural-at-nmsu-golf-course-with-ribbon-cutting/s/2985ce6f-7fdc-4d07-9909-1e3ac1874d49