An apt metaphor for Michael Blessing’s career-defining moment of inspiration might best be described not as a light bulb going off, but rather as a neon tube suddenly glowing. It happened six years ago, following two years of continuously painting oils of classic Western neon...
By the time Catharine Carter Critcher set off on her own for Taos, New Mexico in 1920, she was 52 and had been making her living from art for almost three decades. She had spent five years in Paris, started an art school there and...
Over the course of his life, Dan Corazzi has played many different roles. His varied experiences have included working as a French teacher, high school principal, school district superintendent, software company CFO, and, now, a board member at a prestigious Western art museum. In 2002, Corazzi...
Traditional Western art and memorabilia are back in the saddle. Prices for works in certain sales showed buoyancy; and overall, collectors exhibited both enthusiasm and determination. When classic Ansel Adams prints were available at Sotheby’s, bidders didn’t back away, pushing prices for several pieces far beyond...
In the eighth grade, like many students, Susie Hyer took an aptitude test to indicate possible career paths. “My results came back saying that I was suited to be a cowboy or a park ranger,” she says. “But I knew at 4 or 5 years...
The first train whistled into Flagstaff, Arizona, on August 1, 1882. Its riders were a rogue mix of scientists, explorers, and tourists, all of them anxious to see for themselves the magnificent landscapes they had only heard about: the Grand Canyon, the Painted Desert, the...
Magazine Racks by Norseman Designs West Originally based in New York, John Gallis traded a lucrative career building custom cabinetry for Bloomingdale’s for an artisan-based way of life in Cody, Wyoming. There, he put his creative skills to work and began crafting award-winning, high-end Western furniture...
David Darling, co-founder and partner in the San Francisco-based Aidlin Darling Design, knew by age 6 that he would be an architect. Not so for co-founder and partner Joshua Aidlin. Despite having parents who were artists, Aidlin wanted to be a professional baseball player. [caption id="attachment_24643"...
Evelyn Gottschall Baker’s success is partly due to the sculptures of objects she creates that are so realistic, it’s hard to believe they’re works of art. The antler in The Shed and the coyote skull in Balance, for example, look like they are an actual sun-bleached...
Israel Holloway never dreamed of setting records when he began painting more than a decade ago. “I just enjoy being on the journey,” he says. Nevertheless, when the Museum of Northwest Colorado in his hometown of Craig, a former coal community some 40 miles west...