STOUGHTON - Roqueza Blough was four months old when her biological mother died.
She was quickly adopted by Dominga Maagad, who is now 90 years old, and her father was a military officer, Col. Ramon Maagad.
Blough was raised in Cagayen de Oro City in the Philippines.
As a young child, she loved to draw and sing. Her principal saw her artistic talent and would often have her draw up the posters for the school for any unique events.
In high school, she began to draw cartoon characters such as Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny, but she loved sketching portraits.
Blough attended the Liceo de Cagayen University to get her bachelor of science degree and liberal arts major in economics. She is immensely proud of her education. While in school she entered a talent contest. Most others sang or dance, but she choose to sketch one of the ladies that was present and she placed second.
Once school was completed, Blough began her career in health care.
She continued to create her art as it was a passion for her, and it helped with her frustrations and stress.
Blough meet her husband Kenneth through an online dating site. They soon fell in love, and he went to the Philippines to marry her and bring her to Edmonton, Alta., in 2005.
She was happy there and worked in health care, while drawing for her clients and co-workers.
In November 2016, she was diagnosed with uterus cancer. Blough had surgery in January 2017, but at the same time her husband was extremely ill. He would pass away in April 2017.
Now alone, Blough stayed in Edmonton for a few years, and moved to Stoughton in 2022 with a friend.
She has always wanted to focus more on her art, and this gave her the opportunity to do so. Right now, Blough is not working, but is painting as much as possible.
When Blough was given the chance to put her art in the Stoughton Library, she jumped at the opportunity. Blough does not have her art in any gallery and this would get her name out there.
Blough uses water colour paint pour, which is using acrylic paint and pouring it onto a surface to create a design. She also does paint dragging using a brush or tool which is pulled through a glaze to produce fine blurry stripes. Acrylic painting is also one kind of art, but portraits are her love. She can sketch a portrait from a photo in person or she will use her imagination.
She hopes to be able to create more landscape pictures as the skies here are beautiful, she said.
As Blough looks for a full-time job, she will continue to draw and look for places to display the artwork, but for now they are displayed in Stoughton at the library.
