Tracing the polished surfaces of Sally Hepler's exquisite abstract sculptures with the eye, one falls into a trance - like mystical state. These are curving bands of light, shining paths of a soul trek that has no beginning or end -- that goes out to infinity from wherever you look. Her work connects with deep spiritual wells within the viewer, encouraging peace of mind, even while lines wind around and through knots, creating mental puzzles. Seen at different angles, they seem to move around and through the arcs they make on their way to the next dazzling hoop, as if to suggest that the dark night of the soul and the rapture are one.

Like her work, Hepler has an air of refinement and sophistication. When she speaks about her art and her life, it is with a candor and clarity that has come from living deeply. In 1993, just as she was beginning to make art in earnest, her husband died. Echoes of that fundamental loss seem to reverberate in her curvilinear sculptures, like a thought or a memory that loops around, becomes entangled, and loops out again endlessly: the metal ribbon, like the loss, and its transcendence, is infinite.

Before moving to Santa Fe, where she has her studio and her gallery, Hepler lived in the East. She studied at the University of New Hampshire, the University of Connecticut, and Fairfield University, then pursued careers in international travel, publishing, and architectural design. Santa Fe's high desert climate, cultural diversity, and artist's community provided her with a creative atmosphere in which to do her work. She holds a degree in visual arts from The College of Santa Fe.