Local autobody and home repair specialists Carrie and Paul Peterson will have their artwork featured through November at the Cortez Cultural Center.
I kind of winced a little bit, but I said, Yeah, lets go ahead. And then disciplined myself to get into it a lot more in earnest so that was great, Paul Peterson said about the exhibit.
Carrie Peterson has been painting and drawing since she was little, and she took classes for three years in college. She was born and raised for eight years in a Native American tribe, Hunters Point, in Window Rock, N.M., before moving to the Cortez area.
Carrie humorously wrote of her painting process that she has tried to escape from the area a few times, but as of yet she has failed to do so.
Her art is inspired by her ancestors and their designs, especially the Norse, Celtic and Viking cultures.
Some of it kind of stays with you, and I say, Ah, I need to do something with this, other than what theyve done, she said.
Carrie drew one of the paintings at the exhibit for her son. It depicts her ancestors coming to America by paddle boat and is not for sale.
Paul Peterson started painting seriously back in 2003, but he has been painting since 1985 and drawing his whole life. His paintings all begin with a sketch.
I do a lot of sketching one to three full sketches an evening when Im not painting, he said.
Paul has turned several of those images into painting very recently, with five of his seven at the exhibit having been painted in the past year. He said he lets the overall feeling and personality of an object or person come through and translate into the image, using harmonious, neon colors and man-made images.
His most unique painting at the exhibit, entitled Origin, depicts a mountain and river landscape that looks like it could have been painted by one of his idols, Richard Wagner. (Wagner is a landscape painter who once was a professor at Dartmouth University in New Hampshire before returning to the area to teach at Fort Collins.) Origin will be donated to the Cortez Cultural Center by the highest bidder. It was originally valued at $1,800. Bids start at $500.
Petersons Firmamentation features autobody medium on wood.
I just had a desire to sling some paint, he said.
Red dribbles over wood doused in black paint then inspired the superimposed image of a human, car and race-car flag. End of the Yellow Brick Road features his take on humans walking down the idyllic path with Emerald City, which was once in the distance and is now the silhouette of smoke from an atomic bomb.
Its not meant to be pessimistic but just a concept of what could be or what might be a forewarning, of sorts, to be cautious and tread lightly, Peterson said.
Hes definitely one of my favorite artists, Beau Blakely, of Cortez, said. I gotta have one of his paintings sooner or later just a wonderful way to look at life kind of reminds me of myself. I think Ive been at a bar like that before, Blakely said, pointing to Petersons painting entitled Look, a Bird! at the Cultural Center.
Look, a Bird! features a few of Petersons favorite cartoon characters and some of his own, and his favorite food, pancakes. A sign in the painting reads, Free Bacon. The character is taking it off a tall man wearing a tank top and bandanna. The painting is a social commentary on bullying and people being judged by the way they look, Peterson said.
His Horse painting is his own take on a self-portrait. It features a farmer on a tractor, with white hair, a beard and a straw hat in the foreground. A horse is playing the basketball game, Horse, near a rocketship and red barn in the background.
He has a crow reappear in a few of his paintings. He said it was a playful commentary on the human condition. Crows are very observant and not afraid to interface with urban sprawl and people in general, according to Peterson.
Born in Wisconsin, he has lived most of his life in Arizona and Colorado.
Ive discovered that art isnt necessarily about place, although it can be, but rather a journey of discovery in ones mind and soul, Peterson wrote. I cherish the life Ive been given and the gift of expression of which I will never stop seeking to improve upon. If we all accept that, in whatever we do, we too are artists, then whatever we are doing has immense value.
The exhibit is featured through November at the Cortez Cultural Center, 25 N. Market St. For more information, call the Cultural Center at 565-1151.
Reach Nathalie Winch at nathaliew@cortezjournal.com.