CYNTHIA LYNN ROGERS

7/2/1960 - 4/24/2026

Our beautiful, creative Cindy flew away on a bluebird day with her face in the sun looking at the mountains she so loved. Her 8-month battle with an aggressive cancer was the last of her many challenges since childhood. Born in Tahoe, she grew up moving around from California to the Bahamas and Las Vegas, always enjoying lying in the sun by the pool or the ocean. Through these journeys she developed a deep connection with Hawaii where the "warm aloha" spirit so resembled her own.
Cindy's accomplishments were legendary in the Roaring Fork valley. She worked at least 3 jobs to self-finance her education. One job memorable to art students was as facilitator/instigator of many raucous Life Drawing sessions at university where she basically lived between the Art Department and a tiny garage apartment. After graduating with a BFA in Medical Illustration from California State Univ. Long Beach in 1982, followed by an MFA in 1986, she became a graphic illustrator for the Long Beach Press-Telegram and later the L A Times. Her art (encaustic paintings, drawings, fine lithography and more) lives on at Treedogpress.com. A Master Printer, she assisted some of the country's finest Blue Chip artists coming through Aspen printing copies and giclées of their work. She said, "Art is an inner journey to your soul and the struggles we go through to get there."
As an avid skier, Cindy's passion was skinning and tele-skiing on the local mountains. She worked for years on Aspen Mt at Bonnie's, where she honed her culinary skills. She went on to become a private chef, expanding her repertoire with dairy-free, gluten-free recipes from her own dietary preferences, and publishing her cookbook, "Collections from an Aspen Chef", dedicated to her much-loved little brother David who predeceased her. Her love of this earth led her to decades as a landscaper with a deep knowledge of horticulture and sensitivity to the beauty of flowers. She wrote: "Gardens are associated with an earthly paradise, a meadow of richness perfected and protected from outside contamination, a place where matters of the heart could be cultivated, nurtured and safe." Her time off was spent either on the mountains in snow, or in the deserts of Utah hiking on an almost daily basis with her legions of friends.
A true Renaissance woman - strong-willed, adventurous, humorous and witty, kind and hugely generous, sharing food, laughs, stories, recipes and ideas - she was a genuine friend always willing to listen. Cindy was the glue that connected so many artists in college and friends in the Roaring Fork valley, hosting parties in tiny apartments everywhere, coming into the room like a fresh breeze with a smile on her face. Most astounding though was her depth of intellect and spirit; she was beautiful inside and out, a genuine force of Nature who called herself a "multi-spiritual alien."
As the earthbound part of the Cindy Rogers Tour ended, one can imagine her joy at being greeted by her beloved dogs bounding toward her: Ebony, Osa, Zabo and Alex. Cindy was loved by many, and will be forever missed.