Lita Albuquerque is a painter and sculptor who often uses timeless basic shapes like the circle, the triangle, the spiral, and the square. Her colors are intense pigments - particularly blues, yellows and reds. The artist, who’s been winning accolades for evocative environmental works since the 1970’s, comments that “I mentally and visually imagine my point of vision coming from the far regions of the universe, then traveling down through various galaxies, down, down, then finally getting to our own planet until I can see it half in darkness, half in light.” In the original design for Cirrus & Co.'s ceramic chargers, Albuquerque, once again, creates visual metaphors that call for a mystic connection to a sacred source, a connection between heaven and earth. This important artist has won two NEA grants and has exhibited extensively in the U.S., Europe, Egypt and India. She represented the United States in Egypt’s premier international art festival and recently completed a commissioned four story public sculpture in Southern California. Albuquerque has mentored graduate art students at Art Center College of Design for more than 15 years.