30 Apr FROM THE EDITOR: ROOTED, YET RESTLESS

Each issue of WA&A is a celebration of reverence and reinvention — a view into how artists and designers engage with the West not as a fixed ideal but as an ever-evolving muse.

Inside this issue, we discover painter Jared Sanders, who invites us to see the landscape anew through quiet distillation. His minimalist, contemplative oil paintings depicting barns softened by time, the delicate bends of a tree, a sky weighted with clouds are each a silent poem. After nearly three decades of refining his approach, Sanders reminds us that sometimes the most powerful gestures are the most understated (“The Beauty of Restraint,” pg. 142).

By contrast, Rocky Hawkins’ artwork and home take us deep into a Western dreamscape. He and his wife, Kat, have spent more than 20 years creating No Horse — a “ghost town” where history and creativity converge on 80 acres in Montana. Weathered buildings, salvaged antiques, and the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi — the beauty of imperfection — are found throughout Ghost Wolf Ranch, and Rocky’s gestural, intuitive work mirrors the ranch’s layered aesthetic. His paintings, full of mystery, don’t explain the West; they invoke it (“Ghost Wolf Ranch,” pg. 148).

In this issue, we read about artist Francis Livingston, whose career reflects a driven creative spirit where no artistic endeavor is off limits. The artist developed a wide-ranging skill set that allowed him to move fluidly between illustration and fine art. And Livingston continues to push his work forward, guided by the belief that the only label worth holding onto is simply “artist” (“Just an Artist,” pg. 130).

We also discover the ways that architecture is continuously defined by the Western landscape. In Colorado, a home reflects a couple’s desire to live harmoniously alongside a river, which holds deep meaning for one of the homeowners who spent childhood summers swimming there (“Living with the Landscape,” pg. 136).

Together, this issue’s stories offer a portrait of creators who are rooted in the land but never fixed in their vision. Through quiet clarity or expressive mystery, their work reflects the West not as myth or monument, but as muse. We hope their stories stir your imagination and impart a sense of discovery about this long-loved region.