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...
Bruce Cascia studies storm clouds up close and personal for the dramatically realistic scenes he paints of the vast prairie. “I am constantly going to Lake Michigan,” says the Chicago-based artist, “to photograph big thunderheads blowing through, just like I did when I was a...
Sabrina Stiles sees herself as a storyteller. Instead of words, however, she wields pastels to convey the narratives she discovers while observing the world not far from the vintage 1905 house where she lives and works in Longmont, Colorado, about 20 minutes northeast of Boulder. [caption...
While putting together each issue of WA&A, I’m reminded how much our lives are improved by the artists and architects who share their creativity with us. Through their efforts, we can experience the world in a new way. They call our attention to amber light...
San Antonio, Texas, is replete with reminders of its Spanish history: Colonial Revival architecture, flower-decked balconies overlooking the San Antonio River, and Spanish street names. Amid this homage stands a structural tribute to the lesser-known German heritage that also helped shape this bustling city —...