Victoria Veedell paints the world around her to capture its enduring emotional impact. Rather than faithful physical representations, she says, “I create atmospheric landscapes that are memories of places or the emotions I was feeling when I was there.” Consider, for example, Nightfall San Francisco. The...
“You never know where you’re going to get that first job,” says architect Chris Gray with a laugh. When he and Steven Perce co-founded the Boulder, Colorado-based bldg.collective in 2009, the firm was just the two of them working from their homes. That first job arrived...
Among Leslie Lambert’s most vivid childhood memories are trips with her mother from their home in Ashton, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C., to the National Gallery of Art. She especially loved looking at the bold, fluidly abstract canvases of America’s Color Field painters of...
If a city could hold its stories in four walls — memorializing its glory days, bridging its hard knocks with promises for the future — San Antonio could live within the Hotel Emma. Once a brewery but always a landmark, Texas’ only AAA five-diamond hotel...
Occasionally, the phone rings, and it’s a call you’ll never forget. For artist Kim Douglas Wiggins, that call came one day in 1998. On the other end of the line was John Geraghty, a trustee of the Autry National Center for the American West, who...
In medieval times across Europe, the goal of the court-appointed alchemist was to transform base metals into gold, that rarest of elements, deemed to exalt the wearer. Who could imagine that today, an artist originally trained as a master patineur, devoted to altering the surfaces...
After 53 years as a professional fine artist, Len Chmiel hopes he can paint until he can’t hold a brush. Curiosity is a constant companion for the 82 year old, which allows him to see every landscape as if for the first time. Living atop...
Among the most common reactions to Josh Tobey’s sculpture, aside from smiles, is the question: What is this made of? Is it stone? Ceramic? The surface is so smooth — with rich, delicately gradated hues and often marble-like patterns — that bronze is not what...
Places you fall in love with when you’re young occupy a special place in your heart. That’s why this outdoorsy Bay Area family decided to put down roots in the Martis Valley, just north of Lake Tahoe. “Many of our best times are when we...
Marfa, Texas, is a long way from anywhere, and therein lies its attraction. When minimalist artist Donald Judd first visited in the 1970s, he was struck by the remoteness, the pace of life, the desert air, and, of course, the quality of light. It was...