When Brett Allen Johnson received the Victor Higgins Work of Distinction Award at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art’s Quest for the West Art Show and Sale in September 2021, more than the undeniable quality of his three paintings set him apart....
Labeling Levi Jackson’s artworks as photographs alone would be the same sort of reductionism he undoubtedly advises his students against when teaching studio photography, art criticism, and artist’s theory at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. “I make temporary site-specific installations that I document with...
Josh Tafoya designs and weaves vivid, contemporary textiles that draw on his Southwestern heritage in Northern New Mexico, “going back all the way to the Spanish Conquistadors who settled the rural area of Taos County where my cousins and my parents still live.” More and...
Still-life paintings by Sarah Siltala stir the soul like small miracles. Consider American Goldfinch, for example. The bird looks vibrantly three-dimensional and is thrumming with energy as if it flew in through the window just a moment ago. The bird’s eye shines, creating an eerie...
Early next year, some of Nicole Finger’s paintings will soar to their greatest heights yet. That’s when three works, including Butterfly Express, depicting her 23-year-old daughter, Sam, on a bed of peonies, and Freedom, depicting her 19-year-old son, Max, against the backdrop of Palmyra Peak...
Tony Hochstetler celebrates the natural world’s small-scale wonders in bronze sculptures that combine faithful realism with elegant Art Nouveau, and many of his works also fulfill practical purposes. His Fruit Bat Sconce, for example, serves as a dramatic home lighting feature, with one wing of...
When Ron Shanor creates his Western-style furniture, which has won admiration for three decades, he welcomes an assist from an unexpected collaborator: Mother Nature. The gracefully curved feet of his armchair legs benefit from trees that have grown on slopes or were bent naturally by...
Susan Folwell may be following in the footsteps of her ancestors as at least the fifth generation in her family to make pottery. But one glance at her creations, which thoughtfully, wittily, and sometimes provocatively comment on subjects ranging from political and social issues to...
Maeve Eichelberger grew up with “a lot of art supplies around,” thanks to her architect and sculptor father and her mother who pursued interior design and fashion. So it long seemed a foregone conclusion that the Colorado native would be an artist herself. “I never...
Natalie Christensen clearly remembers being asked in early childhood what she dreamed of becoming when she grew up. “I said I wanted to be an artist,” she recalls. “But my father was very pragmatic and always urged us to follow more practical pursuits. It was...