Aartz West! A new adventure in the arts!

October 11th, 2015
Aartz West! A new adventure in the arts!

TA DA!!! Announcing AARTZ WEST!!! Here’s to freedom, cheers to art. Here’s to having an excellent adventure and may the stopping never start. -Jason Mraz I  am embarking on a new adventure! I’m very excited about opening a new creative haven and teaching studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where I can share creative processes […]

Painting LIVE!

September 24th, 2015
Painting LIVE!

Everything you want is just outside your comfort zone. -Robert Allen. Standing in a public place working on my paintings all day? Making decisions, trying them out, then trying something different? With everyone watching??? (gulp!!!) Art is a conversation. I make a mark,  the painting responds. I hear my muse telling me the next step.  […]

A Brief Report from Indian Market 2015 Santa Fe

August 27th, 2015
A Brief Report from Indian Market 2015 Santa Fe

With beauty before me I walk With beauty behind me I walk With beauty above me I walk With beauty around me I walk -Navajo Blessing Way Ceremony. These are the closing lines from the Navajo Blessing Way Ceremony. As I walked through the streets of Santa Fe, looking at so much beauty, so much […]

How do I Love Thee, oh Horse? In so many different ways!

April 22nd, 2015
How do I Love Thee, oh Horse? In so many different ways!

The principle of true art is not to portray, but to evoke. Jerzy Kosinski Time… the creation of a bronze sculpture takes an immense amount of time, skill and dedication. It is not an endeavor to be undertaken without a great deal of care, commitment and, yes, love. You have to love what you do […]

Santa Fe Studio Tour 2015!

April 16th, 2015
Santa Fe Studio Tour 2015!

Are you busy trying to plan your summer travels? Why not Santa Fe, NM in late June? There will be a fabulous opportunity to visit 68 artists in their studios. They’ll be sharing their creative processes and their finished work. I’m very pleased to be participating in Santa Fe Studio Tour 2015! This year there […]

Rituals, Superstition and Success

February 1st, 2015
Rituals, Superstition and Success

Sports players are renowned for their rituals. Baseball players who never wash their hats?  Octopus carcasses thrown onto the ice at hockey games? (major yuck & sad!) Nascar drivers who shy away from peanuts in the shell? People are strange. Creative and highly accomplished folk of all sorts have rituals too. Winston Churchill woke at […]

Petroglyphs and Jackrabbits.

April 13th, 2012
Petroglyphs and Jackrabbits.

“What is a country without rabbits and partridges? – Henry David Thoreau Thoreau retreated into nature. My retreat here at the Wurlitzer Foundation is much more comfortable than Thoreau’s cabin on Walden Pond. But the time is almost over.  It has been a very productive experience in  many ways. An unanticipated aspect is that I […]

Asphalt and ideas vs. Mother Nature.

November 6th, 2011
Asphalt and ideas vs. Mother Nature.

I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life – and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do. – Georgia O’Keeffe The days you work are the best days. – Georgia O’Keeffe Last night we made a visit to see the work of an old friend, Ms. […]

Floating Artists

October 18th, 2011
Floating Artists

Not all who wander are  lost.  –Tolkein I have been wandering. Not alone, but with a group of students from Castleton State College. We’ve been all over the southwestern US. Studying art and anthropology, we are finding both in abundance. The markings left by ancient people resonate with their ancestral traditions. Art is what we […]

Color and Pizzazz in the Animal Kingdom

September 4th, 2011
Color and Pizzazz in the Animal Kingdom

“I want the viewer to walk away having felt something.” – Linda St. Clair I recently visited the studio of artist Linda St. Clair in Santa Fe, New Mexico. What a delight! Her airy studio is a sky-lit space filled with color and energy. Linda paints animals of all sorts and sizes, furry and feathered. […]