When I received the call telling me I didn’t get the job, I was devastated. On the opposite end of the line, the producer explained it to me. The other candidate had a journalism degree, he said, and had even completed an internship in a newsroom. My credentials, on the other hand, just didn’t match what they were looking for.… Read more →
On a gray fall day, nearly ten years ago, I was in the woods. It was around nine in the morning and it was cool. I was dressed to work with leather gloves, boots, and a tough canvas jacket. A thermos of hot coffee was waiting for me near an idling tractor. My breath materialized around me in pale, ephemeral… Read more →
Late in the fall of 2005 I was working backstage as a costume assistant in a play which had little use for me. Costume changes were few and far between and the actors were fully capable of donning their accoutrement without help from any one of the five assistants in the dressing room. As the days dragged on, we assistants… Read more →
I was young, maybe nine years old, when I first visited the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana. Immediately upon entering I perceived I had entered some venerable space. I had never been to an art museum before, not that I could recall, and the milieu of this one captured me instantly. The carefully choreographed paths of light, the… Read more →
It was late in the afternoon on a brisk February day in Lander, Wyoming, and my hands were full of art supplies. I stood at the door of Sweetwater Studio, looking at the antler-shaped handle, a collapsible easel in my left hand, a portfolio heavy with drawing paper in my right. A full-to-the-brim messenger bag was slung over my shoulder.… Read more →
One of the unknown facts about my path to becoming a working artist is that it all began with fiction. I’ve always been a reader and a storyteller, and I had always taken writing seriously in the way one does when one wants to write well, but I never entertained the notion that writing could become a central pursuit in… Read more →
Crowdsourcing, for those of you who may not know, is one of the great democratizing undertakings available in this era of interconnectedness. It provides means to those who might otherwise not have been able to gain them, by providing a platform for communication and participation in a way that is non-hierarchical. Now, more than ever, people are able to support… Read more →
One of the most frequent comments I hear from those who’ve viewed my solo exhibition, Virgin Land: Myths & Narratives, is: “do you ever sleep?!” The answer is: Yes. Every night. It’s a fair question, I suppose, given the fact that there are over 75 pieces of original artwork on display, only one of which is over a year old… Read more →
Inevitably someone always asks, “what kind of artist are you?” I find this a difficult question to answer. More precisely, I find it difficult to discern the kind of answer the person is looking to hear. Most people, when asking a question of that sort, are actually asking, “what subject matter do you focus on?” or “what medium do you… Read more →
Recently I visited the studio of an established bronze sculptor. After admiring his work and personal collection of art, I asked if he had any pro-tips for an emerging artist. He thought for a brief moment and chuckled. “You should become a plumber,” he told me with a grin. “People always need a plumber.” He chuckled again. Nobody cares about… Read more →