Her own work, displayed in her Meerscheidt Center classroom, shows that she’s a role model for her imaginative students.

Her whimsical, three-dimensional, multimedia works include a stylized dreamcatcher that will be featured on the HGTV show and similar works that combine multicultural themes and influences, from an Aztec sun to a colorful, happy-looking frog with a lizard painted on his chubby belly. In another, a family of quail parades across a desert landscape, with an interactive bonus. The critters are painted on watercolor paper, pasted to foam core, then affixed to a round surface with a painted backdrop mounted on a board. One quail figure remains free to trot with its family— or into other scenes— with the help of artist-or kid-powered animation.

Copper, felt markers, pastels and “anything I can get my hands on” might end up in her multimedia works.

“Then there is my serious work,” she explained, showing vibrant acrylic paintings with more traditional themes, from portraits to landscapes.

The New York native has lived and worked at diverse locales ranging from Florida and Washington, D.C., to Indianapolis and Atlanta, but this is now home, she said.

“I feel like Annie Oakley. I love the West and I love Las Cruces,” said the artist. She and her husband, Stan, a pharmacist, had long wanted to live in the West. “We were thinking about Phoenix or Tucson. We stopped in Las Cruces and I told him this was it.” They moved here in 2004. Muchnikoff, 62, said she began art studies at the Maryland College of Art and Design. “My husband was working on a doctorate and I decided I had to do something, so I turned to art. It felt good. It felt right.”

Her late mother, Rea Bienstock, inspired her to teach, she said. “My mom had cancer. She had been a phenomenal hairdresser and I got her to pick up a paint brush. Soon she was painting these huge, beautiful canvases. She did over 100 pieces and got into juried shows.”

Paul Crispell of Las Cruces praised Muchnikoff’s teaching skills. “Last year at Highland Elementary, when she went to do her after-school programs, it was amazing to see the creativity that pours out of these kids,” Crispell said. “I prefer to teach students from kindergarten through fifth grade. They have such marvelous energy and creativity. I want to let them know that everything they do is okay. I just show them a little bit of technique. I direct and they do the work and I will find something special in every piece. I’m very proud of the work I do with kids,” Muchnikoff said.

That work includes city of Las Cruces sponsored after school programs at Highland Elementary on Mondays, Alameda Elementary on Tuesdays, Conlee Elementary on Thursdays and Hermosa Heights on Fridays.

“I usually teach 15 to 25 students per school with the help from the supervisors. On Wednesdays, I go to Desert Hills Elementary for one hour and do art with about 12 kids through their PTA and then I run downtown to the Las Cruces Art Museum studio classes and teach there from 4:15 to 5:45 with six to eight students. On Saturday, as part of the museum’s Saturday drop-in program, I teach a maximum of 12 students from 10 to 11:30 am. The Saturday drop-in program is only $5 per child. I will be teaching an extensive summer art program at Meerscheidt Recreation Center tow days a week and continue my museum teaching as well. I fill my afternoons with teaching my kids and I paint for my own creativity in the early mornings at first light.”

She has been active in community art endeavors, serving as a volunteer chairperson for the Renaissance Craftfair. Locally, she’s shown her work at The Bean and hopes to find another gallery soon.