Custom furniture maker Scott E. Armstrong may live and work in the town of Powell, Wyoming, but don’t necessarily expect him to craft you an item that shouts “Western.” Sure, his creations may bear regional touches, like subtle inlays inspired by barbed wire or the...
Debra Box enjoys a reputation as a museum-quality artist in beadwork and parfleche — painted rawhide containers, so named by French traders because the material was tough enough to parry (parer) an arrow (flèche). So it may come as a surprise to learn that, although...
Woodcuts and linocuts by Tom Killion miraculously bridge the 5,000 miles and two centuries separating present-day California and late-Edo-period Japan. Inspired and influenced by the works of master woodblock print artists Hokusai [1760–1849] and Hiroshige [1797–1858], yet undeniably American in their expansive energy, Killion’s handmade...
Jared Brady doesn’t have to travel far from home to find subjects for his plein-air and studio landscapes. “Usually,” he says, “I’m out painting on our property.” His family’s 30 or so acres, complete with an aspen grove and pine trees, is in Woodland Park,...
What happens when support for the arts is cut off? As in Jhenna Quinn Lewis’ painting, Secrets to be Lost, the paintbrush and palette dry up, valued old books are forgotten, the candle of knowledge and creativity burns out. The painting was the Oregon-based artist’s...
John Gallis contentedly lives with a waiting list for the custom Western furniture he and his two coworkers — son Ian and shop foreman Tim Goodwin — hand fashion at Norseman Designs West in Cody, Wyoming. “We build 12 pieces a year, and we don’t...
Last October, Carlos Hernandez and a group of print enthusiasts, costumed as extraterrestrials, planned a parade he playfully claimed would summon rock-and-roll legend Buddy Holly down from the heavens and back to his hometown of Lubbock, Texas. Alas, a sudden downpour thwarted their efforts. [caption id="attachment_19029"...
Jun Kaneko executes his sculptures on a monumental scale, but not because he thinks bigger is better. “I’m interested in the technical challenge,” he offers when asked why he creates 10-foot-tall, vividly glazed, featureless heads; rounded 13-foot abstract forms he calls dangos, Japanese for dumplings;...
Over the past three decades, Tim Cherry has won widespread acclaim for his Art Nouveau-inspired, limited-edition bronze animal sculptures. His works are in collections ranging from the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to the Briscoe Western Art Museum in Dallas, Texas,...
Phyllis Shafer joyfully defies expectations with her plein-air paintings. For starters, she forswears the easily portable format most landscape painters rely on when working outdoors. Instead, the artist, who lives in South Lake Tahoe, California, may lug canvases as large as 4 feet wide into...