Marilyn Huerta

Artist Bio

Communications Specialist
College of Education, Health and Human Services
Academic Affairs
Marilyn's Portfolio

Community & Outreach Liaison in Community Engagement where she also managed the CSUSM Art Gallery. She taught online art healing courses for the CSU Shiley Haynes Institute for Palliative Care for several years and encourages others to bring creativity into everything we do.

In addition, to her work at CSUSM and being an artist herself, Marilyn wears many hats and is also the Veterans Communication Specialist for The Veterans Art Project located in Vista, CA. She is very passionate about the power of the arts and uses it as a tool to help others to connect, to communicate and to cope. She comes from a very large military family and is dedicated to supporting our military community. Her graduate research was focused on veterans with PTSD and mental health concerns and has facilitated art workshops with homeless veterans. 

She advocates for suicide awareness and prevention and strives to educates others about the military lifestyle. She volunteers in our community and brings more awareness about these concerns. Across North County, Marilyn also served as a Boys & Girls Club Ambassador for Youth, President of the San Marcos Arts Council, Charity Wings Art Center Community Liaison, Sunday Art Walk Coordinator at Old California Restaurant Row, Arts Commissioner for the City of Oceanside, Carlsbad ArtSplash Committee/Family Section Facilitator, ArtMiles Ambassador, TERi Center Fine Arts Committee Member, as well as Student of Arts Association Advisor and Student Veteran Org Advisor at CSUSM.

Marilyn’s favorite medium to work in is acrylic painting and enjoys painting how she feels.  She also loves photography, clay work and other medium

Artwork by Marilyn "Finley" Huerta

"Freestyle Feeling"
Art Medium: Acrylic on watercolor paper

"Monarch Friend"
Art Medium: Mixed media on watercolor paper

Featured in Spring 2024 Exhibit

"Butterfly & Me"
Art Medium: Acrylic on canvas

"Pink Tusks"
Art Medium: Acrylic on canvas

Featured in Fall 2023 Exhibit

"New Beginning"
Art Medium: Acrylic

I painted this and exhibited it in Florence, Italy while a student in the CSU Summer Arts program.  This piece was chosen to be exhibited in the CSU Chancellor’s Office in Long Beach. 

As part of the arts program, our professor took us to amazing art museums and taught us to sketch what we observed.  One of the museums had sculptures of babies and childbirth that our Master artists and scientists created in medical research. I was inspired and drew what I saw in my sketchbook using the “blind contour” drawing technique. (You look at the object while drawing in your sketchbook without lifting your pencil and not looking at the paper.) I came up with some interesting abstract type designs and decided to turn one into a painting such as this.

"Nature on my Mind"
Art Medium: Acrylic

"Butterfly Nose"
Art Medium: Acrylic

Featured in Spring 2023 Exhibit