Tell me about your art journey

I grew up surrounded by the arts, both of my parents were artists, so we were always visiting museums and galleries. In junior high I was really into Leonardo, Rafael and those guys (not just the Ninja Turtles), and was trying to copy their drawings. I ended up at DU and received my BFA in painting. My daughter just got her masters through DU in Arts Culture Management and works as the Front Desk Manager at Colorado Springs Fine Art Center, so the baton continues to be passed in the family!

I’ve been a professional career artist for 40 years. I wish I could say that it’s a consistent blissful state, because I do hate the stereotype of the “tortured artist”, but there is often an angst to it that is the driving force behind the work. It’s much more complicated than most people want to dive into, there are just so many aspects and variables to this whole consciousness thing, endless influences and emotions that work themselves into what you are creating.

What inspires you?

Abstraction does inspire me - it’s what I’ve always been surrounded by, so it’s not a strange or intimidating thing to not know or understand the subject matter. A lot of people want to ask, “What is it?” or “What does it mean?” and that’s never really mattered much to me. I paint from a psychic level, and an image or something might come up that doesn’t make sense immediately, but its meaning will eventually reveal itself. I move intuitively in a different mental state when I’m creating, on a more subconscious level where I’m driven by a feeling or an appreciation rather than a desired outcome.

Other artists are also a huge inspiration, Matisse, Picasso and a thousand others. Matisse always has something that I aspire to, there is a kind of ease about his work that is just amazing, whereas Picasso becomes much more psychologically driven. It’s always a trip to think about those guys creating that work through World Wars, and thinking about where their minds were while producing their work.

What are you most proud of in your art career?

I think my first show at Walker around 2005/6ish, where I took over the gallery with 18 large-scale paintings. It was one of those, “I’m doing it!” moments that are often fleeting in the life of an artist. Having that relationship with Bobbi and the gallery carry on and continue for the past 20 some years has really been a monumental part of my career.

What are you looking forward to this year?

I’m preparing for a show at the Sangre de Cristo Art Center in Pueblo where I will show beside my dad’s work with my mother, who is 92 and my brother Daniel. I’m showing sculptures there, which is really exciting to produce in a different medium, I’m not fully satisfied with just painting, or drawing - I have to create or I think I would go crazy!

Another future aspiration that is bringing excitement is this building in Portugal that I came across, a 5000-square-foot space for an affordable amount that would allow me to create a live/work space that is sustainable for my desires. I will never be satisfied with a “traditional” scope of life, so dreaming about these future possibilities keeps me looking forward.

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