Meet the Team
Judi Combs, Founder of Thunderbird Artists and Co-Owner of Thunderbird Artists Gallery
When Judi Combs lost her beloved father, she took her still-suffering mother to painting classes—and fell in love with art herself. As a stay-at-home mother of four children, she sold her paintings at weekend shows, but felt promoters cared about profits than art, and she knew the artists deserved better. She started Thunderbird Artists in 1981 with small parking-lot shows, and her evident respect for artists and quality art became the company brand. Since their inception in 1992, the wildly successful Thunderbird Artists Fine Art and Wine have been delighting browsers and buyers alike, as well as garnering regional and national awards. Judi’s dream was to have patrons fly in just for a Thunderbird Artists festival—and that was happening on day one. Judi also founded the non-profit American Healing Arts Foundation, which offers free art classes to veterans, and co-founded Arizona Fine Art Expo in 2005 with her brother and sister-in-law, Dennis and Judy Long. In December 2018, she and her daughter Denise Colter co-founded the Thunderbird Artists Gallery. Since 1994, Thunderbird Artists has worked with numerous non-profits and as of 2022 had donated $830,000 to charitable causes.
Denise Colter, President of Thunderbird Artists and Co-Owner of Thunderbird Artists Gallery
Putting the “family” in family-owned business, Arizona native Denise Colter spent her childhood playing under her mother’s easel, but before entering the art world herself, she took a dramatic leap into dance. After studying ballet at the Royal Academy (US locations) and dancing soloist roles in Paquita, Faust, and Don Quixote, she was invited to join the contemporary ballet company, Terpsicore. She spent over a decade teaching and choreographing for competitions before stepping up to help solidify her mother’s legacy running nationally celebrated fine art and wine festivals. President of the Thunderbird Artists organization since 2019, she lives in Fountain Hills with her longtime partner and three beloved dogs. Denise was the driving force behind Thunderbird Artists Gallery; to her, having a permanent space is just one more platform for showcasing spectacular art.
Haley Austin, Executive Director of Thunderbird Artists and of Thunderbird Artists Gallery
Speaking of family, Haley Austin is Thunderbird Artists family in all but bloodline. Born in Michigan and raised in Arizona, Haley has been an indispensable part of this award-winning team since the tender age of 17—and earning a bachelor’s degree in biology from Northern Arizona University, getting married, and having four (that’s four) children never slowed her down. Some of her copious responsibilities include overseeing festival logistics, handling taxes and licensing, securing participating vendors and performers, and executing office projects—as well as serving as default tech support for the festivals and the gallery. And somehow, she finds time for active volunteering at her church and her children’s schools, and as an officer in the Little People of America organization. Her children, now aged 10, 8, 4, and 3, long ago became unofficial mascots of Thunderbird Artists, while Haley’s two-decade-long journey has taken her from after school job, to full-fledged career, to lifelong passion.
Nancy Pellegrini, Director of Thunderbird Artists Gallery
Originally from Long Island, New York, Nancy Pellegrini was raised by an art professor father and art teacher mother, but her focus was always on performing arts, writing, and travel. After living in England, Ireland, and South Korea for four years, she spent 18 years in Beijing, China as a full-time writer and editor working for the United Nations, Penguin Random House, and the Time Out magazine series (Beijing and Shanghai editions), among others, writing about theater, dance, classical music, and opera—all while working on television and in radio, managing a North Korean art gallery, directing community theater, doing animal enrichment with orangutans at the Beijing Zoo, and remote-working her way through five continents. She then moved to Phoenix, Arizona and married a local artist (and his three cats), but not before immersing herself in the visual arts by writing articles, selling for artists at their studios, and finally becoming Thunderbird Artists Gallery director in September 2021.
Victoria Monize, Associate of Thunderbird Artists Gallery
A longtime Scottsdale resident, Victoria Monize calls oil painting her “heart’s calling.” After shifting from portraits to vibrant floral still life and landscape pieces that reflected her love of nature and travel (especially camping), she started exhibiting with the Thunderbird Artists family in 1999 and running her own studio in Old Town Scottsdale, as well as showing in festivals throughout Arizona and Colorado. In 2007, she founded her own health and wellness venture, Vibrant Health and Beauty, Naturally, where she served as an Ayurvedic wellness counselor, nutrition response testing practitioner, and Reiki master, and developed a multitude of healing and beauty practices. She took a brief hiatus from art to move to California but returned five years later to be nearer to family and to recharge her career—by finding a studio in Carefree (Victoria Monize Fine Art), and by stopping by the gallery to say hello to old friends—who were thrilled to have her back in the fold…and who just happened to be seeking a sales associate.