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"From Shadows to Light: An Artist's Journey of Hope" · Colorado Soul Stories

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Welcome to Colorado Soul Stories, showcasing changemakers and creatives,
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past and present, who have helped to make Colorado not just a pretty place to
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behold, but a soulful place to be.
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I'm your host, Mama Jill, longtime Colorado resident, former teacher,
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and freelance journalist.
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Let's get started with our next episode.
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Music.
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To be very clear, we are surrounded by this water, but our friends are still here.
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We're all rolling together, up on top like a boat, and if one thing's for sure,
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it is hope that always floats.
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My home, your home, it ain't gonna take away our home.
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My home, your home, it ain't gonna take away our home.
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Hi, and welcome back to Colorado Soul Stories.
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I've been on the road in the southern
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Colorado mountains, and I'm here in beautiful Westcliff, Colorado,
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meeting my friend Andy Mast, who is an amazing artist, and his gallery is here
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at 3rd and Main in Westcliff.
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Welcome to the show. Thank you, Jill.
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I'm glad to catch you. We're going to just start off with your journey to becoming an artist.
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Okay. Well, I was born within an Amish community, and I grew up in Southern
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Illinois, near Mount Vernon, Illinois.
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And so for me, art was not so much a discovery. It was just very much a part of.
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Of who I was right from the beginning. According to my mother,
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I was attracted to paper and pencil before I could walk.
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So for me, it was something that I just always loved doing and I don't remember a time I didn't do it.
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So I was attracted to paper and pencil and it's what brought me joy.
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I didn't even desire toys that much.
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I just wanted to scribble all the time. So in first grade,
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my parents did notice my penmanship and they were like, maybe there's something
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to this, you know, maybe this kid has a gift or some talent.
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And so, in my early years in grade school, in our Amish parochial school,
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I kind of became the school artist doing the poster and decorating and those types of things.
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So, it was just very much who I was.
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I grew up on the farm, and so finding drawing time was a challenge.
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So I would work
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during the day on the farm then I would come in late at
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night and draw by lantern light or lamp light growing up within the community
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you know there was no electricity no vehicles no power of any kind so the lighting
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you know was different than than most artist studios today.
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So growing up in the Amish community, I was very little exposed to art.
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You know, we traveled with horse and buggy, so I didn't get to town as much.
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So my exposure to art museums or even libraries was very minimal.
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So I just did what I loved and just stuck to the drawing board.
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After eighth grade, most Amish communities just go to eighth grade in our parochial schools.
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And then from thereafter...
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The students usually apprentice with, say, a father or an uncle or a community
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member, and they really start to immerse themselves within the trade.
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You know, whether it's construction, whether it's just simply farming or cabinetry
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or furniture making or blacksmithing, you know, in those teen years,
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14, 15 and 16, we learn by hands on.
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And so that was the case for me, which was on the home farm,
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just working on the farm, taking care of the horses and the crops and the hay
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and those types of things.
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But that made it ever so much more challenging to draw. And so even during those
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teen years, I loved drawing and I craved a mentor.
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But in the rural area in which I was, there were very few professional artists
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that I was connected with.
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So it was a challenge. But drawing is what brought me peace.
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And so I would draw late into the night. Okay.
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Were your subjects, I'm assuming, from around the farm?
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Mostly horses, because I grew up around horses. My brother trained horses full time.
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So horses were my life. Horses were a huge part of our way of life,
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horse and buggy, riding.
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And so it was just a natural fit to start drawing horses.
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And so that's kind of what I started out with. Yeah, and you still incorporate
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the horses out here in Colorado, and there is a very intense kind of a dichotomy
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of a situation with those horses for you.
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So if you want to share about that a little bit.
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Yeah, I was 17 years old, still working on the home farm, and it was a brutally
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cold day in January of 2009.
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It was actually the very day, January 19th of Barack Obama's first inauguration.
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And it was...
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A brutally cold day in Southern Illinois and so cold that it was difficult to work outside.
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So my dad had a ton of paperwork to do inside and he asked me if I would help.
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But he said, before we get started, please go turn out our two-year-old to the paddock for exercise.
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And the last I remember is turning towards the barn to do that errand.
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And 20 minutes later, my dad found me laying unconscious on the frozen ground
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with the horse standing right beside me.
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And he kind of had his head draped over my body as if in remorse.
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And so he was not a dramatic horse, an evil horse or anything of the nature.
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So I know he didn't intend to hurt me, but something happened and it involved
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the metal gate leading into the paddock.
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And so somehow something happened, But it would be 48 hours later before I woke up in the hospital.
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And I was confused, and I don't even remember how long I was in the hospital,
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but I had a severe brain injury.
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And little did I realize what lay ahead, I would not be able to work for five years thereafter.
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And was work on the farm or anything correct yeah
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i couldn't do anything physical i wasn't even able to
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socialize or attend events or or
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through most of that time i was even unable to
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draw because i lacked the strength to concentrate and
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that was probably another significant
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part of that trauma was what had
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came so naturally for me when it
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came to the art and drawing had seemed to be taken away from me and it had seemed
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that my art career had come to an end yeah and and that in itself was very devastating
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i'm sure did you were you able to process that with your folks or did you just kind of hardly i mean,
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My family and loved ones around me tried to understand, but the head injury
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and the severe depression that followed was extremely difficult.
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And so I essentially, it felt like I became a prisoner in my own body.
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You know, there was all this pain and darkness and nobody in the whole wide
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world seemed to understand, even if they wanted to.
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And so that's really as i
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was able i would draw and try to
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work on my art but so much of that time
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i even lacked the strength to do so but as
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i was able i did so and it was very
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very therapeutic and now even in retrospect my
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parents say had it not been for
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his art you know we're not sure he would still be
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here yeah it was just very therapeutic and
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i just had that strong sense that i was
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going to be an artist and i never let go oh
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good that kept you going i i'm just going
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to interject that i'm remembering now that when i met andy
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i had just recovered and it's in no
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way the same magnitude but i'd had
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a horrible accident where i couldn't walk for five months and
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i'd had three operations and my head was very fuzzy for
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a long time and I'm a doer and not necessarily
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an artist but I do art and I you know I'm always
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running around doing stuff and that was very depressing and so I can empathize
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greatly that that must have been horrible but having the art and having the
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determination to bring it back I think is really special.
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Yeah, even looking back, it's hard to...
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Conceive how I actually did it. Because in the moment, it was so difficult.
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And that's where other artists really, their work really spoke to me.
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And, you know, I was fortunate enough to get my hands on an Art of the West
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magazine, and it had a subscription form in it. And so, I subscribed to it.
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And so I got that magazine bi-monthly and I would read about these other artists
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and their work just really spoke to me and also helped me through those tough times.
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And so now having gone through that dark time,
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it really has brought the importance to me of,
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you know i want to try to
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make the world a better place you know and it
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was only until i experienced that darkness that i understood the importance
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of the light and so light is very important to me in my work and also in my
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art and metaphorically even in my life and in the walk life is full of light and shadow.
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You know, and it just hugely influenced my work.
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And I strive to bring hope and peace to people, like it brought me hope and
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peace at one point, you know.
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You say, Andy, that the drawing brings you peace. And we talked about the pencil
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being the kind of tool of that piece.
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And there will be links to Andy's website so you can see his art if you haven't
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seen it before, but it is black and white. So it's very obvious that the light
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and dark are very important, and the shades in between.
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I wrote about Andy after I met him a couple years ago, and I used the phrase
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wanting to kind of crawl into his paintings and curl up and just be cozy,
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because that's how they made me feel.
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They're definitely peaceful and simple, make you want to just...
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Go outside, find a tree to sit under or something and enjoy it outdoors.
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Yeah. And obviously, aesthetically, I want to create beautiful work.
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If people have it in their home or desire to live with it, I want it to be beautiful,
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which is very important to me.
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However, even beyond that, I just feel very much that my mission is to bring
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hope and peace to the world and to people.
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And my ultimate goal is if I can make somebody's day, you know,
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even just to drop better, who's going through a tough time, you know,
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then that's what my work is all about. Absolutely.
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That's activism one person at a time, which I think is sometimes more effective.
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Than trying to do it with a group.
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So as you were bringing your drawing back, if I recall, there's a very well-known
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drawing that you did that kind of catapulted you to the next place.
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The drawing that Jill is referring to here is called A Long Day.
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It actually landed on the cover of the magazine for which she wrote my story.
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It's called A Long Day, and it's an image of a blacksmith bent over shooing a horse.
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And it's a kind of a darker scene. This scene took place after dark.
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It's kind of a not-so-ordinary perspective of the horse.
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It's more an angle from his backside, and the horse's body kind of wraps around
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the weary cowboy, almost as if embracing him.
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And so, this piece I worked on for a year and a half during my dark time, as I was able.
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I have, I think, approximately about 500 hours in this work And so,
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in looking back, I didn't realize it at the time But in looking back,
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I realize now why I was drawn to the scene,
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I was drawn to all the darkness because I was in a very dark place.
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My exhaustion connected with the cowboy's posture and his own exhaustion at the end of the day.
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However, the horse's body seemed to be bubbling with energy.
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And the way his neck wraps around the cowboy, it just felt like he was embracing that exhaustion.
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But I feel the most important part of this drawing is the eye of the horse,
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which I drew an incredible amount of strength during those times.
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It just, without that eye, the drawing would have a totally different feel.
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So the eye is the soul of the work.
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And to this day, it's one of my most popular pieces. And so many people who
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are not even necessarily horse people don't know why they are drawn to that piece.
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And I had to dig really, really, really deep physically and emotionally and
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creatively to pull that off back at that time because I was so weak at the time.
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So, I would go up to my room upstairs, which my so-called studio,
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and I would attempt to work on it only to collapse in the feet.
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And I just did not have the strength. Was it strength not only physically, but mentally?
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Like all of it. All the whole thing. All of it. I was losing weight.
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I didn't have the strength.
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Doctors were confused. So the physical, mental, spiritual, emotional,
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all of it was all it was just wiped out.
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So the accident just seemed to throw my body chemistry way out of whack.
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And it was a challenge even for the doctors to figure out what was going on.
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Well, I can imagine the emotional piece is harder.
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I'm sure it sounds like that was your heart was hurt, too, emotionally,
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that you couldn't easily do the drawing that you had done. But you persevered.
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This drawing is right behind Andy right now as we speak.
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So it's kind of neat for me to look at it. I wish you could see it at the same
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time, but maybe you will when I post it. But it does remind me now that you
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told me that extra piece of when your dad found you after the accident with
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the horse leaning over you like that.
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I don't think I'd heard that part before, and that was quite powerful for me to hear that.
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And that kind of reminds me also where the horse is kind of wrapped around the…
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Kind of that connection and that bond.
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You know, a lot of people see this eye as fearful for the horse.
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Okay. Because there's a little bit of white in the eye, which I understand.
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However, he's very alert. He's very aware of what's going on.
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But he's just in a very aware horse. It's not like he's looking to hurt the cowboy.
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That eye and that very alertness in the eye spoke to me of strength.
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He's not there sleeping. He's very aware of what's going on.
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And so I just drew so much strength from that. And it seems to support the cowboy's weariness. Mm-hmm.
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And the little bit of light that's coming in through that barn is cast over the horse's head, too.
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And so that light very much reflects my dim ray of hope that I had at the time. It's very minimal.
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And if you look at the whole drawing, so much of it is dark.
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It is. But the sensitivity to the light...
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Is very important in just the subtleties and the sensitivity to the light.
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And one night I was tossing and turning in bed and I was just reflecting upon
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my life and where I was, what I went through, where I am today.
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And suddenly some words came to my head.
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And only until I got out of bed, wrote these words down, could I sleep again.
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And those words were the deeper the shadows and darker the night,
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the brighter the sunshine and sweeter the light.
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And so I feel that drawing there just encompasses all of that.
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No, those are things we all need to learn, really, to appreciate life in all
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of its difficulties and joys.
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And that glimmer of hope, it's amazing how a glimmer can go a long way.
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Yeah, even if it's very faint and subtle.
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Yeah, absolutely. Even the tiniest form of hope is better than none at all. Than none.
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That's kind of my motto in life.
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I mean, we've got to have it. We can't give up.
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I'm tearing up a little bit, but that happens when I do these interviews because
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we talk about intense stuff sometimes.
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It's good, though. It's good tears.
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So then what happened? When it was finished?
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So from 17 to almost
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23 for those five years was that
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dark phase however towards the
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tail end of 22 almost 23
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we did some surgeries did take
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place that did change my health around
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and my strength started to
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slowly come back and i was
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still very fiercely focused on my art but
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of course at 22 I wanted to I
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needed to you know make some money somewhere so
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I did a part time job with sawmill doing
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a simple task of just stacking light boards you know as I was getting stronger
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and the employer you know very much understood my situation and so he gave me
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that job and it was very nice just a couple days a week and I remember the first
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time that I got a paycheck Oh, yeah.
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I just simply couldn't believe it because I had given up and I didn't think
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I would survive at certain points there.
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So, it was an enormous amount of gratitude that certain pieces of my art also reflect. However.
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A long day was complete. And in the meantime, I had competed in some local shows
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at Cedarhurst Center for the Arts in Mount Vernon, Illinois.
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And I had placed four out of five years in the competition.
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So people were very becoming aware locally about my work.
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And for being a farming community in Southern Illinois, I was very fortunate
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in the support that I received there for that area not being culturally that artistic.
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But I just got this strong sense of, if this is what I was going to do for the
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rest of my life, I was going to have to step out.
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And my work was not going to bless people in the closet.
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So, again, without electricity or internet back in the community that I grew
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up in, I had a non-Amish friend, a Mennonite, who they did have internet.
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And so we sat down together and he helped me fill out an application to a show in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
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So upon my first attempt, a long day was accepted into that show. Wow.
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Let me ask you real quick, because I don't know if I asked you this before.
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Had you traveled outside of Illinois much before that?
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A little bit. I mean, I have traveled because my grandparents lived out of state
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and family lived out of state.
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So it's not that I didn't travel at all, but not that much.
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My brother who trains horses full time, he also loves the West, a Western way of life.
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So he actually ran cows on a BLM lease over in the San Luis Valley at the foot of the San Juans.
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And so him and his wife, for two summers, ran cows in the foothills there and lived in a camper.
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So in October, before my accident in January, I was 17, my parents and I came
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out and picked up my brother and his wife.
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And so that was the first time I had seen Colorado. When was the first time?
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That was the first time I had seen Colorado.
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And something just changed in me. Okay. And I totally loved Colorado.
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All the Western artists that I had seen in that magazine, and especially Tim Cox, was a hero for me.
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Colorado was exactly how I had envisioned it in the paintings that he portrayed.
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So that was the first time I'd seen Colorado. And I can say,
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I guess, it changed my life.
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So I got accepted into the Western Spirit Art Show in Salem, Cheyenne, Wyoming.
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So at 23, just as I was getting stronger, I told my family that,
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you know, I want to go attend this show.
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So i jumped on
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an amtrak train in centralia illinois went
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north to chicago then from chicago to
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denver and i attended the show there
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and on opening night
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i was stunned when i
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realized that my drawing a
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long day had won first place and for
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me it was terrifying you know because my work
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was only hung in local spaces in illinois and
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this piece was so very personal to me i was just terrified it wasn't my artwork
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hanging on the wall it was myself hanging on the wall and so when i learned
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that it had won that blue ribbon i just simply could not believe it yeah,
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And so, that was essentially kind of what launched my professional career.
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When I left Illinois on this particular trip, I had been through so much,
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and I just told my family, you know, I just need a break.
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I need a breath of fresh air. because, I mean, my community back home was very
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caring and very concerned and loving in my debilitating time.
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But at the same time...
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For five years. And as a teenager, it started to seep into my identity.
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You know, I just kind of felt like I was always the sick one.
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And then... Like the victim. Yeah, the victim of what had happened to me.
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And that's also how my community had known me.
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Sure. I hadn't been able to work for five years.
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It was just, I don't even have words. It was It's very difficult.
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And so it was really affecting my identity. And so I just told my family,
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I'm just not going to punch a return ticket.
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I'm just going to go out and to the show.
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And I want to go explore Colorado because I had heard at that time that Amish
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people were migrating to Colorado. And so, I was up in Cheyenne, Wyoming for 10 days.
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My Mennonite friend knew the local ranches and cowboys.
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So, he introduced me to this one ranch that enabled me to ride with them to
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sort pairs. And I just tagged along and helped out.
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So, for 10 days, I did not know where I was going to be the next night.
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And my friend, I was like.
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And my joke is that that was as close as I'll ever live to a bedroll cowboy. Right.
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Because I slept in old bunkhouses. I slept in tiny rooms. I slept in non-ideal
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places, but I didn't even mind because it was just the best thing that could happen to me.
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Total strangers out with the animals and the cows and the horses and wide open
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spaces. And it just felt like me and God. And so it was exactly the healing that I needed.
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So after about 10 days, my friend there said he had some church members that
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were coming down to Pueblo, that if I wanted to come down here,
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they would give me a ride. So that's what I did. Okay.
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Came down to Pueblo, ended up in Westcliff. And I did not even know any of the Amish people.
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I had met Wilbur Yoder once before, and he said, hey, if you're ever in Colorado, come check it out.
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I think Wilbur is rumored to be the first one from my research.
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Yes, he is. And that would have been, if I recall, 2009-ish or when? I think 2008. Yeah.
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And just an aside, my husband is Mennonite and descended from Amish.
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And we came through Westcliff on a little road trip with my son and saw this
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Yoder furniture, Amish furniture. Yeah.
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And he was like, what are the Amish doing here? They're not supposed to be here.
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And we were just confused. When did they start coming out? Well,
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first time for everything, you know. Right. Yeah.
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Well, they've been a wonderful addition, actually.
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So, you had met Wilbur somehow through connections through the Amish community.
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Yeah. Yeah. And so, I came and, of course, Wilbur's the person I was looking
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for. So, I went and knocked on their door and said, I was visiting. It's not like.
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We communicated, and I asked them, hey, can I come for a visit?
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I just showed up. Well, because they wouldn't have had a phone, probably.
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They would have, but I would not have had their contacts.
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So they offered me to stay. I stayed in their bunkhouse, and I was here for just a couple days.
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Then I attended their church, and I was at church as a stranger.
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And one gentleman approached me and said, who are you?
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What are you doing here? and I can't even remember what I said,
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but he said, I am opening up a gift shop in Westcliff and I'm looking for somebody to manage that.
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And I was like, oh, okay. And I said, well, let me think about it.
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And so I talked to Wilbur and Karen about it and they said, yes,
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they would let me live in their bunkhouse.
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And so I only thought about it for about a day and I told him,
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yes, was the perfect fit. managing the gift shop was not that much of a workload.
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So it really enabled me to work on my artwork still part-time.
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So that first summer, my art just took off.
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I was able to display my work in the gift shop.
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I worked on my art and I instantly knew that I wanted to come back because my
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parents thought this was just a couple week trip that ended up being from March until October.
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And i instantly knew i wanted to
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come back to this place and so the next summer
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i came out and i launched full-time at
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yoder's furniture as an artist in residence they provided me a space that enabled
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me to work on my art and put some of it on display and so i was there for four
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years i might have walked by you once when i went through my goodness i didn't
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know that okay so i was at yoder's for four years and then my business grew
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enough to where i needed to spread out a little bit.
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And by that time, I had some acquaintances on Main Street.
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And so I joined one of the real estate groups, a little space in their office
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in grandma's house. And I was there for four and a half years.
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And that's where I met you. And that's where you met me.
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And so I've been at this new location now at 219 Main.
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For exactly two years now. Okay, yeah. I was so happy for you to get some space
29:53
to really stretch out and appropriately have your art displayed.
29:58
And oh my God, I love that bighorn sheep up there.
30:02
So yeah, this is the first space that I get to consider my own.
30:08
And I made the space exactly how I wanted it, you know, with the colors,
30:13
the toned down colors and all the white. And so people get to see my work in
30:18
a light they may have never seen before. Yeah.
30:21
Appropriate light for your artwork. So when I had met you, the big thing that
30:28
had happened was your work got displayed in a pretty fabulous way for the stock show in Denver.
30:36
Was that 2022? I was in 23.
30:40
Okay. Okay. Which doesn't seem quite as long ago. They projected it on the Median
30:45
F Tower, which is a very historic building off of the 16th Street Mall.
30:49
And the Stock Show is such a big event in Denver. People come from all over.
30:54
So did that add to your notoriety, I suppose? It surely did.
30:59
It really got me into Art of the West magazine did a news feature on it.
31:05
A Western art collector did actually a little story on it.
31:09
It actually even snagged the attention of the Who's Who Foundation.
31:14
I don't know where they saw it or how they found out, but they reached out to
31:17
me and said that seemed very notable to them. The local paper picked up on it.
31:23
My hometown paper in Mount Vernon, Illinois picked up on it.
31:26
And so, who's who nominated me as a 2023 Exceptional Entrepreneur of the Year or something like that?
31:35
And just, you know, coming from my background, from the farm to the May DNF
31:39
Tower is quite a contrast.
31:40
So, they were really enamored in that story. Contrast. There's a lot of contrast in your life.
31:46
Light and shadow. Oh, yeah. My goodness. I'm sure your parents miss you terribly. Yeah.
31:52
But I'm sure they're very proud, and they saw all this talent in you at an early age.
31:58
It just occurred to me to clarify for listeners that don't know about the Amish culture.
32:04
Each community, I've learned from Andy, makes their own rules.
32:07
Maybe you don't call them rules. It's in German, Ortnum.
32:11
Say it again. Ortnum. Okay. Which basically, you know, is foundation of basically
32:17
rules, I guess you could call it, or standards. Standards, yeah.
32:21
Standards in practicing. the way of life right
32:23
so there are hundreds of communities in america
32:26
and so it's not like a main
32:29
denominational standard that applies to
32:32
every group so it's what each individual group agrees on yeah and so the the
32:40
group out here embraces more than the group in which i grew up with so for example
32:46
technology you know having a website and those types of things and even speaking here with you today.
32:52
It's more technology. So our community out here embraces that.
32:57
We're more mobile now than we were 50 years ago. Before computers and cell phones.
33:03
Back when there was still party lines and things like that before my time,
33:09
back when my parents were growing up in the 50s and my grandparents that were born in 1919 and 1920,
33:16
they lived off the land they lived
33:19
off the small farms both my parents grew up milking cows
33:23
and so on a dairy farm
33:26
you're married to the dairy farm because the cows
33:29
have to be milked twice a day and by hand so
33:32
it was not an option to go explore colorado or it was anywhere you know so so
33:38
things were just more limited back then but now sadly as the small farms are
33:44
become are dying off more because you just can't make it with 12 cows anymore.
33:49
And the large commercial farms are adding a pressure to the smaller farms where
33:56
it's just hard to make it.
33:57
And so now, unfortunately, a large portion of the Amish population,
34:02
they're doing construction work. Yeah.
34:05
Which they're very good at, by the way. Which in a sense, thank you,
34:09
which in a sense, they have day jobs, so they come back home,
34:13
And so they don't have cows to milk.
34:16
So life is just different now.
34:19
And thereby we are more mobile.
34:21
And so that more mobility has been changed.
34:26
One of the reasons that Amish people have been migrating west.
34:31
They are in Kansas, they're in South Dakota, they're in Nebraska,
34:35
Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho.
34:40
So it's changing and it keeps changing. Which there is a little sadness to that.
34:45
There is, there is, there is. Life is a difficult balance sometimes.
34:51
Sometimes it's hard to know what to embrace and what to leave behind.
34:57
You know, it's tough sometimes. Yeah.
35:00
With my husband's, some of his family reunions, we'd go to a small armrest farm in Illinois.
35:06
I can't remember the town, but it was just so beautiful.
35:11
I mean, it was just so neat and tidy and the children were so sweet and free,
35:17
running barefoot, riding bareback on the horses. It was almost like a movie
35:22
to me. It was a special thing to see.
35:24
I honestly, actually, I feel like I've done more miles bareback than I have in the saddle.
35:29
Oh, that's cool. You know, as a child, you know, I rode all over the place bareback. Oh. You know.
35:35
Which, by the way, Andy, you know, he was injured accidentally by his horse.
35:41
Some people might have walked away with the trauma of, I can't be around a horse ever again.
35:46
And that certainly wasn't the case with you. There was, if I recall,
35:50
a forgiveness to the horse, and it sounded like the horse felt bad.
35:55
Anyway, and the horses are still a huge part of your life, exactly. Yeah, yeah, they are.
36:01
For me, it bothered me for a very long time.
36:04
I think for the whole time that I was ill, like, what mistake did I make to
36:10
cause this accident? Okay.
36:11
I mean, I just felt so responsible. You know, the horse does not intentionally
36:18
hurt you. You know, it's,
36:20
prey animal or specie. And so, it must have felt threatened at some point.
36:26
And so, what was my mistake that made him feel threatened?
36:31
And so, that bothered me for a long time. And so, there's all these nuances
36:37
of approaching a horse, handling a horse.
36:41
I feel like I had to make a mistake in order for that to happen.
36:45
And so, that bothered me for a long time. However, I finally came to the realization
36:49
that I'm very fortunate in that I do not have to remember a horrific memory. That's true.
36:55
And so when I came to that realization, I just could let it go.
36:58
Yeah. You know, and so there was no effort of even forgiveness on my part.
37:04
I mean, obviously I forgive the horse, but. Forgiving yourself.
37:07
Yeah, that probably more importantly.
37:10
And after that, I just, I could let it go, you know, and it has never haunted me. Oh, good.
37:16
That's good. And really, those traumas, we can experience the rare person that
37:21
can turn it around into something amazing.
37:25
That's pretty special.
37:27
And that's why you're a special person to me.
37:30
I'm so glad I know you. Thanks. So Andy has his own gallery here,
37:36
as we said, at 3rd and Main. So this keeps him busy.
37:40
He has to carve out more time to draw. We talked about protecting your time.
37:47
Yeah you know,
37:49
All my life, I wanted to be an artist. I was in sixth grade.
37:54
I remember sitting at my desk in our one-room schoolhouse, and I was drawing,
37:59
and it felt so right, the way the pencil was laying onto the paper.
38:03
I just remember telling myself, this is what I'm going to do the rest of my life.
38:08
And it was more than just a statement or a decision.
38:11
It was a strong sense of knowing somehow that this is what was going to happen. It's like a calling.
38:18
So I've just never let go of that. And so all of my life, I wanted to be an
38:24
artist and having my own gallery was a dream and a goal.
38:29
So of course, I considered all the things, the money, the work, and all the things.
38:36
But one thing that I had not realized was the importance of actually protecting
38:41
my time at the drawing board because now as my business has grown and expanded,
38:46
there's so much logistically from shipping prints to fulfilling orders to ordering
38:52
prints, print production.
38:54
Framing to and from shows, meeting deadlines, plus being available to the general
39:01
public and the patrons who walk into my gallery on a daily basis.
39:05
That's one thing that I had not considered as much because up to the point of
39:11
working at Yoder's and Grandma's house, people would trickle in and I would
39:15
still get a fair amount of drawing done.
39:17
But I had enough support and patrons that enabled me to get by.
39:22
But now, since I moved here the last two years, the greatest challenge of my
39:27
career right now is simply the time to draw.
39:30
To actually make the art that you wanted. Which is, yeah, where it all happens.
39:34
So it takes a special conscious effort to carve out.
39:40
Drawing time and protect my time to pursue my passion. Almost like full circle
39:44
back at the farm. Yeah. At least maybe have some better light this time.
39:48
Do you have a studio separate from the gallery? I do. That's good. I draw in my space.
39:54
I'm very fortunate in having people that work the gallery here part-time.
40:01
Good. A few ladies that have enjoyed it in here that I'm extremely grateful
40:07
for, they manage the gallery so I can draw. Oh, good. And so that is very invaluable.
40:13
If I lived closer, I'd do that. I'd volunteer.
40:16
Well, thank you. That's very kind. Absolutely. That would be great.
40:21
Well, maybe I'll just figure that out. The drive here from Salida is so pretty
40:25
the whole way. I was grateful for that.
40:28
So you probably don't have time to do much else, but if you do have time to
40:34
do something other than the gallery or drawing, what would that be?
40:39
Well, usually when I'm not drawing, I'm thinking about drawing.
40:44
Really, really. Artists. You know, I love, I love riding.
40:51
I'm very fortunate to know several of the ranchers here now.
40:56
So I have access to horses anytime that I need.
40:59
You know, sometimes I just need that fix. Well, and you need to be out there
41:03
to get your inspiration.
41:04
Yeah, for sure. And so, it's just some people have mentioned that,
41:09
you know, they try not to take their art serious, that serious that it, you know,
41:15
it's not who they are, it's what they do, you know, which I understand where they're coming from.
41:22
But for me, I'm finding it doesn't work that way because my art is who I am.
41:27
And so the things I love revolve around my art, you know, whether it's hiking
41:30
in the mountains, which I love, attending the brandings, or being around horses,
41:36
helping friends and neighbors.
41:38
You know, I love all those things. And it's all connected and it's all incorporated
41:45
into the walk and it's all incorporated into the journey.
41:48
And so all those things are who I am.
41:52
You know, and I just really am grateful for this town and the people in it. Oh, good.
41:58
And it's been a huge blessing.
42:02
It just sounds like you're well-loved here. People like to be around you.
42:07
I'm very blessed. I'm very blessed. I'm happy for you that way.
42:11
Thank you. Thank you. Wonderful to see you succeed and do so well.
42:15
And my hope for you is that you keep protecting your time to draw because it's
42:24
important and ride the horses and get out there.
42:27
Yeah. And, you know, there's a lot of great similarities in the Amish way of
42:35
life and how I grew up and in what.
42:38
You know, the Western way of life. Although the culture is a little different,
42:42
you know, growing up in the Midwest, there's a lot more fences, you know.
42:47
I grew up around horses and cows, but our cows were on an 80-acre farm.
42:53
And so we did rotational grazing and we worked our cows in arenas and corrals,
42:59
whereas out here there's wide open spaces.
43:03
But the same principles apply of taking care of the land, living off the land.
43:08
If you take care of the land, the land takes care of you.
43:11
And it's more of an arid climate out here.
43:15
Back in the Midwest, water is not as much of a problem.
43:21
And so, there are differences. But I really connect to this valley and the beauty
43:27
here and the agriculture here and living off the land, treating the land with respect.
43:32
And it just feels so right here. It just feels so right here.
43:36
Yeah. It's just so gorgeous. It's a good place for you, for sure.
43:40
Yeah. You have some shows coming up. I will participate in the Broadmoor Art Experience.
43:48
I'm a guest artist up there, and I will be participating on site,
43:53
drawing from life there.
43:54
And then later this fall, I'll be returning to Oklahoma City at the National Cowboy Museum.
44:00
This will be my sixth time participating there. And that's a big show.
44:05
And their Small Works Great Wonders are a show. Right. Yes. So,
44:08
yeah, very busy time of year for me.
44:12
This tiny town attracts a very broad audience.
44:17
I have been very fortunate in the people that I've met here. I have work in,
44:25
12 foreign countries now. And most of those come through visitors through my
44:30
gallery. Through Westcliffe.
44:32
That is amazing that people from all over the world have found you.
44:36
Did they know that they were going to come visit you or did they just pop in?
44:42
Most of them are by happenstance. But now, obviously, I have friends.
44:47
There's people now that come back and they look me up because we met once before.
44:52
And so, yeah, Australia, Netherlands, I can't name them all offhand here,
44:58
but it's kind of interesting to think that I have work across the ocean now.
45:04
Yeah, I love it. It's great. Yeah. Australia has its own cowboy culture.
45:09
It does. It does. I bet they love your art. Yeah.
45:12
Well, I saw some ladies out there. Were they coming to sit the gallery? They were visitors.
45:18
They were visitors, yes. Are those your friends?
45:21
Acquaintances. Acquaintances, yeah. Looks like they have guests that they want
45:25
to bring in. Oh, okay. Well, yeah, we don't want to prevent a sale here.
45:30
Thank you so much for doing this with me, Andy. It's been a joy to hang out with you again.
45:35
You're welcome. You're welcome. And thanks for supporting my art and what I do. I love it.
45:40
So if you're ever in Westcliff, come on by and visit Andy.
45:43
Maybe you'll get to meet him. It'll be a pure joy.
45:47
All right. We're going to close out this episode. Thanks for listening.
45:51
And now it's back to the drawing board. I hope so. Literally.
45:55
Literally. Okie doke. Hey, thanks for listening.
45:59
I appreciate each and every listener, whether you listen to an occasional episode
46:04
or you have signed on for the whole thing.
46:08
You are a kindred spirit who appreciates what I'm trying to do here.
46:12
And FYI, I do do this completely by myself.
46:17
It has not been an easy learning curve, but I really wanted to do it.
46:21
And I had a passion involved.
46:23
And so I've learned the technology for the most part. It's kind of ongoing.
46:28
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46:37
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46:41
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46:48
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46:54
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47:14
In the meantime, thanks, and whatever you do, wherever you are in the state,
47:19
go out and make Colorado a more soulful place to be. See you next time.