Paul David Sanasac

Paul began his adventure on June 19, 1940, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His parents, David and Madolin (Ham) Sanasac, along with his brother, Wayne, soon moved to Yuma, Arizona. Paul grew up in Yuma but often spent his summers on his family’s ranch in North Dakota. He was introduced to ranch life at an early age, an experience that would later influence both his life and his art. In 1958, Paul played football for the Yuma High School “Criminals,” earning a scholarship to Arizona State University.

While studying business and playing football, Paul realized that his true calling was fine art and planned to change majors. Those plans changed when he was called home to help his family care for his ailing father. While home, he fell in love with and married his high school sweetheart, Linda. After his father’s health improved, Paul no longer had the means to continue his education, so he joined the U.S. Army, where he trained as a sharpshooter and later as a construction draftsman. While in the Army, Paul was blessed with two children, first his daughter, Stacy, and then his son, Brad.

After the Army, Paul continued his education and eventually graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in art, specializing in painting and sculpture.

The world is not always kind to young artists. Luckily for Paul, he knew Hazel Cash, who owned the Cash Ranch, where he could cowboy for room and board. In the evenings, he could paint and become part of the artist community in Santa Fe. On the weekends, he worked as a manager at the new Santa Fe Downs horse racetrack. It was at the racetrack that he met another Linda, the woman who would become his wife and partner for the next 52 years. Together, they were blessed with two children, Zac and Sara.

Seeking to settle down, just a little, Paul was hired as a draftsman for the Public Service Company of New Mexico in Albuquerque, where he would retire 23 years later. But Paul and Linda had another dream: to build a home in the Manzano Mountains.

And they wanted to build it themselves.

They made and laid adobe bricks. They incorporated trees cut when nearby New Mexico State Road South 14, now NM 337, was widened. Friends and neighbors affectionately called their house the “Adobe Ruins,” and they often came to help. For 10 years, they worked to turn their dream into a home. Money was often tight, and building a house was expensive, so Paul did what an artist does: he created. His bronze sculptures and acrylic and watercolor paintings appeared in galleries and shows throughout the Southwest from the 1970s through the 1990s, and his work won several awards. The money they brought in helped pay for concrete, bricks, windows, doors, and whatever else the house needed.

Piece by piece, painting by painting, Paul helped create the home where his family would build their lives.

Paul’s family continued to grow with the arrival of his grandchildren. His eldest daughter, Stacy, had two children, Cheyann and Cody, followed by his eldest son, Brad, who had two children, Seth and Sarah. Years later, his youngest son, Zac, had a daughter, Simone.

Paul loved art. He loved building and creating things with his own hands. He loved his friends. He loved his community, volunteering as an EMT and firefighter for more than 20 years. But more than anything he created during his 86 years, Paul loved his family.

It is fitting that Paul’s adventure in this world ended there—in the house his own hands built, a house made possible in part by the art he loved, in the community he loved, surrounded by the family he loved.

In Paul’s memory, take a moment to appreciate the beauty around you. Watch a New Mexico sunset, look up at the clouds, notice the changing light on the mountains, or stop to photograph something that catches your eye. Paul spent a lifetime noticing these moments and capturing them through his art. The next time something in nature makes you stop and look, think of Paul.