Born Tamara Karla Surendorf, San Francisco, California. October 5, 1942, at St Mary’s Hospital at 9:30 am.
Father was Charles Surendorf, “Who’s Who in American Art.” Graduate of the Chicago Art Institute, oil paint, watercolors, member of the Society of American Etchers, served on the first Art Commission, San Francisco, era of the WPA. Surendorf gave up teaching art in the bay area and moved to the ghost town of Columbia in California’s Mother Lode. There he set up studio and gallery, painted, and stayed quaintly loaded, to the delight of the ghosts, and the chagrin of the State Park Service which took over the town with its concession attractions.

Natalia Neil, Karla’s mother, was a professional psychiatric social worker and lived in the Mission District of San Francisco. She was a descendent of the Winslow family who came over on the Mayflower, the first Quakers of Maine, and two ancestors whom signed the Declaration of Independence. Natalia later married a railroad man, and the two of them became colorful and beloved characters in the town of San Luis Obispo, California.

Karla had one other family. Auntie Mary Cox, of the Miwok Tribe in Tuollomne, California, adopted her as a daughter and took her in when Karla was carrying her son, Charlie Small Bear Free, (Brule, Sioux,) who is now happily working in many capacities of the film industry.

Karla is an individualistic personality with an intriquing world view and unique communication skills. Her life has been a well meaning effort against all the odds.
She resides outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in a sculptured adobe home which she built herself over eight years, for eight thousand dollars, with help from friends, and with special help from Cat Tsosie of Picuris Pueblo. She built this home while on a Disability Grant, overcoming an autoimmune disease of the thyroid, and while raising her son alone. Naturally, the house will always be an ongoing project, and a wonderful studio has just been finished, thanks to the genius of Santa Fe landscaper Ben Herrera, allowing Karla to start painting again.

As an artist’s daughter Karla’s first art sales came at six years old, drawing and selling postcards outside her father’s gallery in Columbia, California. This studio gallery happened to be a deserted bar from the 1889 gold rush, complete with the long oak bar, gold dust under the floor boards, (which no one could ever find,) and a huge wall safe where Surendorf kept his can of beans.

To Be Continued…

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