Quakie Afternoon

Original Oil

by Tom Howard

Art Size: 8” x 6”

Framed Size: 12” x 10”

I was born in Nevada and raised in Northern Utah. The place I now call home is the Salt Lake Valley. My wife and I are the parents of 5 children. I've persued art in one form or another for the past 31 years, working as a paste-up artist, graphic designer, illustrator, and cartographer. I began painting full-time in 1995 after graduate school. Nowadays, between adjunct teaching at Salt Lake Community College and BYU-Idaho, as well as painting in the studio, I make enough of a living to keep the wolf from the door, sort of.
     Minerva Tiechert (pronounced Teigert) once said, "I believe that there are only two reasons for paintings in the first place. Either a thing must be very beautiful, or it must tell an important story." My paintings and drawings are about bringing beauty found in the natural world to the view of others. We can find that unique beauty if we only learn to not just 'look' but to 'see.' Even the most mundane and gray spot on earth has its moment of glory. My desire is to capture in paint as many of these moments as I can.
     My family has supported me throughout my journey as an artist, through the good times and bad. For me art is not just a profession, it is an important part of the way I live my life.