Meet The Artist

Welcome to another exciting installment of our Meet the Artist series, recorded right here at The Tucson Gallery!

In this special episode, host Tom Heath sits down with the incredibly talented Victor Navarro. With his numerous business connections throughout downtown Tucson, Tom brings a deeply rooted, community-focused perspective to the interview, making him the perfect guide to explore Victor’s fascinating journey and his vital role in our local arts district.

A Story Painted in Bold Colors

Victor’s story is a beautiful blend of Southwest heritage and global reach. Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and raised right here in Tucson, Victor knew he was meant to be an artist by the time he was just 13 years old. He didn’t just dream about it; he lived it, stepping into the professional art world at 15 and never looking back.

Today, his vibrant works—spanning acrylic, ink, and oil—capture the vivid spirit, culture, and magical realism of the Sonoran Desert. But his canvas extends far beyond Arizona. Victor has taken the soul of Tucson to some of the world’s most prestigious stages, exhibiting his art at the Carrousel du LOUVRE in Paris, the Sun Yat-sen National Memorial Hall in Taiwan, and World Art Dubai.

In this intimate conversation, Victor opens up about:

• Discovering His Voice: How the colors, culture, and community of Southern Arizona shaped his early identity and continue to fuel his passion.
• A Global Canvas: What it means to share the essence of Tucson with international audiences, and how those cultural exchanges have, in turn, influenced his brushstrokes.
• Art as Connection: His dedication to exploring themes of diversity, identity, and emotion—creating pieces that invite viewers to feel deeply and embrace radical joy.

Bring the Magic Home

At The Tucson Gallery, we believe art should be accessible to everyone. Victor shares this philosophy, which is why we are thrilled to feature not only his breathtaking original paintings but also a curated selection of his fine art prints and custom merchandise. Whether it’s a statement piece for your living room or a beautifully designed gift, Victor’s work allows anyone to own a piece of Tucson’s creative spirit.

Whether you are a longtime collector of his work or just discovering his bold, expressive style for the first time, this interview offers a profound look at the man behind the canvas.

🎧 Listen to the full episode (play above or on the left)!

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Experience it in Person: Inspired by the interview? Come see the vibrant colors and intricate textures for yourself. Visit us at The Tucson Gallery (245 E Congress Street) to explore Victor Navarro’s incredible artwork in person, or browse his collection online.

👉 [Victor Navarro’s Collection on TheTucsonGallery.com]

Wild Hearts and Painted Dreams: How Courtney Christie Turned Passion into Art

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Meet Courtney Christie: Zookeeper, Artist, and Desert Dreamer

At Tucson Gallery, we believe every piece of art carries a story. Few stories are as vibrant and inspiring as that of Courtney Christie. From working with reptiles and insects at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum to creating breathtaking paintings and stickers that celebrate the natural world, Courtney’s journey is a testament to following your heart — even when the path isn’t a straight line.

A Journey Fueled by Curiosity and Creativity

Courtney didn’t plan to become an artist. In fact, she first pursued a degree in criminal justice before realizing her true passion lived in the desert’s wild places. Working with reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates unlocked a deeper connection to nature — and eventually, a spark to share that beauty with the world through art.

Today, Courtney’s work blends scientific accuracy with artistic soul. From detailed portraits of Arizona’s incredible bugs to vivid, dreamlike desert landscapes, her art tells stories of survival, beauty, and wonder.

The Art of Elevating the Overlooked

Through her detailed paintings and her now-iconic stickers, Courtney brings tiny, often misunderstood creatures into the spotlight. Her mission? To show people the beauty of bugs, reptiles, and desert life — and inspire a sense of appreciation for the natural world that surrounds us.

With over 100 active sticker designs and growing collections of fine art pieces, Courtney is just getting started. Her work captures both the complexity and the magic of Southern Arizona’s rich biodiversity.

Watch and Listen: Courtney’s Story in Her Own Words

🎙️ Listen to the full podcast on SoundCloud:
[SoundCloud Player Embed Here]

🎥 Watch the full video interview on YouTube:
[YouTube Embed Here]

Hear directly from Courtney about her artistic journey, the creatures that inspire her, and her dreams for the future!

Explore Courtney’s Artwork

Discover Courtney Christie’s full collection of original paintings, prints, and stickers available at Tucson Gallery. Whether you’re drawn to the intricate patterns of moths and beetles or the sweeping beauty of a Sonoran sunset, there’s a piece of Courtney’s heart waiting for you.

🌵 Stay Connected

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for artist updates, new releases, and behind-the-scenes looks at our vibrant Tucson art community!

🔔 Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and SoundCloud for more interviews and artist spotlights!

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Transcript

Tom Heath
Well, welcome back to another exciting episode of Meet the Artist. It’s a product of the Tucson Gallery, which is in downtown Tucson, and Congress Street, across from Hotel Congress. We’re on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Congress right there, and they can’t miss us. We’re inside of the proper shops. Today is our first recording outside. We’ve been doing all the Meet the Artists in there that we try to bring you out remotely to our studio.

Tom Heath
And today we are with the fabulous Courtney Christy, welcome to Meet the Artist.

Courtney Christie
Thank you.

Tom Heath
I was trying to think like it’s sometimes it’s just, you know, our our our artists, but you’re like, zookeeper, animal tamer or snake charmer. You wrestle alligators, too.

Courtney Christie
Is that sometimes? Yeah.

Tom Heath
Well. And what, what role? Like, where do you do all of that stuff?

Courtney Christie
All the animal stuff.

Tom Heath
Yeah. Like, where do you. Where do you. I’ve seen pictures of you holding, like, really big snakes.

Courtney Christie
Oh, yeah. So I’m a zookeeper at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. I’m, one of the reptile keepers, so I work with reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates. Saw the.

Tom Heath
Birds. So you have wrestled an alligator?

Courtney Christie
I’ve never worked with alligators, but very large snakes.

Tom Heath
Very large snakes? Yeah. On the Tucson Galleries website, there’s your profile, and it’s got the picture. And the snake is as tall as you are.

Courtney Christie
I’m not even remembering what picture that I was.

Tom Heath
I just had the snakes all the time. So it’s like I’m thinking it’s this big deal. You’re like, that was just a Tuesday, I don’t know.

Courtney Christie
Yeah, an everyday thing, but it’s really fun.

Tom Heath
Yeah. So it was, it was. This was zoo keeping. Was that your passion? Is that what you’ve thought about you’re going to be doing or did you. How do you get into zoo keeping?

Courtney Christie
It’s kind of it honestly wasn’t really planned. I, oh, it’s. Yeah, I graduated college. The first time with an unrelated degree was not really a plan for what to do. Once I had the degree.

Tom Heath
Perfect. That’s what college is for.

Courtney Christie
Yeah, criminal justice was my first degree.

Tom Heath
Okay.

Courtney Christie
And then after a year of not doing anything with my degree, I decided I wanted to go back to school because I wanted to do something with animals. I didn’t want to be a vet, but I didn’t really know what else there was. So I just figured I would figure it out along the way. And,

Courtney Christie
Yeah. Towards the end of that second stint at the university, I, ended up doing an internship at the Desert Museum. And yeah, the timing worked out, the stars aligned. I got really fortunate with how everything worked out. And, ended up with a job like a year later, a year after my internship. And I’ve been there ever since, so it’s been about eight years.

Tom Heath
Wow.

Courtney Christie
Yeah.

Tom Heath
So how does that work? You go to school, you graduate, you get a degree. Did you did you went back to school. So, like, how does that, like, what does that mean going back to you if you don’t start over but you take just a different class?

Courtney Christie
Yeah. I basically had to kind of start over. So I did the full four years the first time, on a scholarship. And then when I went back, I had to just pay out of pocket. So I started a PMA and then went back to you. Okay. So it was actually five more years. So my entire 20s, I was just in college and then, five more years.

Tom Heath
So yeah.

Courtney Christie
Because I was working full time also so I can go to school completely full time. Gotcha. But yeah. So I got an ecology evolutionary biology degree and then, yeah, I ended up at the Desert Museum. Is is your keeper. And I always thought I would do field work afterwards. But then I started having, like, back issues, so I can’t seem to be mindful of the things I’m going to do with long terms, and.

Courtney Christie
Yeah.

Tom Heath
So, so that how does this, that what point did this artistic bug I say bug as a pun because we’re of work there bugs, but not all of your work. But you have a quite a collection. When did you start getting involved with with art? I mean, was this just passing time when your nine years of college?

Courtney Christie
No. Ironically, I didn’t do any art during college, but, when I’ve always done art, like, since I was a little, just like from book reports to just random drawings like that. And then during college, I just didn’t really have time for, personal hobbies. And then when I graduated, I was like, I feel like painting.

Courtney Christie
So I went to Michaels for my first time and bought some paint supplies. Oh my gosh. I was like a 20 something year old and just started painting and, and then I went back to college. So it got paused again for another 4 or 5 years.

Tom Heath
Since we picked up some canvas and supplies. And what, what what your first painting was.

Courtney Christie
One of my first. It was like this really abstract, super colorful cityscape with, like, crazy colors, kind of, I guess, winding through the city. Okay. Yeah, just very abstract, the experimental and stuff. But, yeah, it was fun. I really liked it. And then once I around the time I became a zookeeper, actually, I was like, I’m going to start doing art again.

Courtney Christie
And then it wasn’t until last year that I decided I actually want to try and do this full time, and I’m not there yet, but I’m making plans to hopefully make that happen. Okay. Yeah.

Tom Heath
And you know, you’re in. I think people should probably go to the website to sign gallery.com to see the different styles of work because you’ve got, color is definitely a part of your palette, but you have a couple of very different kind of approaches to art, or some is very, very accurate portrayals of animals and bugs, and others are beautiful landscapes with very vivid sunsets and, and things of that.

Tom Heath
But that like the, the, the, the, the, the, the bugs and the creatures and the critters and the butterflies. Is that coming from the the background of a zoo keeping evolutionary biology, or is that something that you were doing? And it just sort of happened to be a coincidence?

Courtney Christie
Yes.

Tom Heath
Okay. This interview is over. It’s for that question.

Courtney Christie
Yeah. So. Well, I’ve always liked bugs, since I was very, very small. And, my first bug encounter that I’ve been told from my mom is walked up to her with my hands closed and, wanted to introduce her to my friend Fred. And it was a black widow that was three years old. And she was like, all right, put that down.

Courtney Christie
I don’t pick up Black Widows now, but I’ve always liked spiders in particular. And then, I’ve always liked bugs, but never really had pursued it and didn’t really know any other people. I liked bugs, until I worked at the Desert Museum. And then I’ve met a couple of really, really awesome people who are entomologists and made a few mentors, or got a few mentors.

Courtney Christie
And I just learned a ton during the first two years working at the museum. And, yeah, I didn’t know, like, scientific names or half. I didn’t know any of the things we had, besides very basic things like that’s a beetle and that’s a black spider, and that’s a brown spider. But yeah. So I learned a lot just through my job and the people I met through there.

Courtney Christie
And, and then the art part came along later when a friend of mine encouraged me to. I had painted a beetle and for, like, an auction thing, and, And he was like, you should turn that into a sticker. And I was like, I don’t know anything about stickers. Plus, I want to do fine art. So, like, I want to paint like giant cats, like big cats and stuff.

Courtney Christie
Because originally I wanted to go work with big cats. And, and he was like, oh, a lot of people will like that. It’s a really, really special beetle we have in southern Arizona. The glorious scarab beetle and I was like, all right, I’ll turn it into a sticker or whatever. But my main goal was to do, like, painting, like acrylic on canvas.

Courtney Christie
And I was like, this is just going to be a little side project. And that was five years ago, and that’s become my main project, which is still I’m hoping to make that my side project. But, yeah, from that beetle. And basically since then I’ve drawn over like 200.

Tom Heath
Different ads going to ask me. Yes. Any that you have.

Courtney Christie
Yeah, I have over 100 active sticker designs. And then I just last year started branching out into, like, prints and greeting cards and things, because I wanted to kind of steer back into, like, I want to make the leap to painting and then have, like, my sticker business sort of self-sustaining for a while or just a little less, energy putting into it.

Courtney Christie
Because painting is very time consuming.

Tom Heath
But, I mean, I don’t remember getting back to pay. You are a painter. You’ve got several. We’ve got a few originals in the gallery. Just so a couple, the it that is, it’s a different feel on the on the canvas. Then. Then the stickers. The stickers are very much like. Sometimes they look like photographs of of the the image of the images, but they’re hand drawings.

Tom Heath
And then the, the canvas just there’s always not always a lot of times there’s, there’s sunsets or sunrises. There’s, that sun sort of blasting through the, the image on the canvas.

Courtney Christie
Yeah. It’s, I think a challenge for a lot of artists is trying to find a focus because the fun is in the creating, and it’s just so easy to have, like, so many different outlets and interests. And I think some artists really do hone down on, like, a specific subject, subject matter or style or something like that.

Courtney Christie
And so some of us are just always in this experimental phase, and I love doing the bugs. Like so, as with my zoo keeping and the bugs and the reptiles I love, the bugs especially. So many people are afraid of bugs or just don’t know anything about them. And same for snakes. And the thing I love about my job is there’s a little bit of an education component, and we do programs and get to talk about like I did today, and we get to show people these aren’t scary animals, they’re not out to get you.

Courtney Christie
They don’t want to hurt you. You get to educate them mostly about venomous, like snakes and lizards, but bugs too. You know, they’re we need them to live on planet Earth, and and people don’t know much about them. They’re so tiny that a lot of people don’t get to appreciate the intricacies. Like, they’re really cool abilities.

Courtney Christie
Their colors, their shapes. They’re just. They’re little, tiny robots. They’re very, very complex. And people have no idea because they’re so tiny. And, actually, on my camera roll right now, I have about that, an almost 70 photos of a tiny wasp I found this morning. It’s called a child city wasp. And they have very thick thighs.

Courtney Christie
Like they never skip leg day. And, I’ll show you afterwards, but the the people, like, when I saw it just flying in the air, it was just this little, like, yellow thing fluttering around, and I didn’t recognize the flight pattern. I was like, what is that? So I thought then I caught it in a vial and looked up close and I was like, oh, it’s so cool.

Courtney Christie
Well, we’ve seen a few of these, not this species, but point of that being, it’s so tiny it would be easy to overlook. And what past? And through my art and my paintings and, some of my earlier paintings, I started doing these, like jumbo bugs for, a work event we have called insect topia. And just to, like, hang them up for decoration, I.

Tom Heath
Was trying bugs. Yeah, they’re a lot of fun.

Courtney Christie
And the point of those is to to blow up all of these intricate, complex, beautiful details of these tiny, scary creatures to show people how cool they are. Because they’re really awesome. I mean, people don’t get to see them in that context up close. So I figured, like through art and painting, you can kind of create more of an appreciation, you know, because there are size, like, I mean, I did a six foot centipede.

Courtney Christie
Yeah, a couple of years ago. That fits in the door frame. And, maybe that’s not a great example of something to make people like bugs can centipede, you know, kind of an actual, like, creepy crawly, but, yeah, bugs are so cool. And reptiles too.

Tom Heath
But just looking at the intricacies of your drawings and, and, you know, butterflies and moths that I did not know. There is much of a difference between the two. Until I started, because one of my jobs at the gallery is to catalog everything and get it into the inventory. And so when you bring in your stuff, it’s like a whole lesson for me.

Tom Heath
I’m trying to learn because you bring in the light and it’s luckily you give me like it’s the one with the blue and red on the wing so I can track it down. But I’m looking at these two and, and so sometimes I have to like look them up online to figure out which exactly one is it. And I’m just amazed at the, the symmetry and similar and similarities between them, but also even in that case, once you really start to look at it, they’re so different, they might look the same and in one respect, but then as soon as you kind of dive into it, the patterns are different or the the placement

Tom Heath
of the colors of the circles, you know, they’re all obviously they’re all independent and unique, but, I don’t know.

Courtney Christie
There’s yeah, there’s so much diversity and in not just insects and vertebrates and I mean just laps alone, which are moths and butterflies, there’s I think 800,000 species. And of those.

Tom Heath
It’s like, add some more stickers to make.

Courtney Christie
I want to say there’s like 90% of those are actually moths. And like a very small fraction is butterflies. But moths are mostly nocturnal. So we don’t see them as often and, and. Yeah. And something else that has been one of my goals with my bug art is, to kind of make more niche things that are hard if like that aren’t found anywhere else, like there’s so many bugs, you know, and you’re not going to find certain things anywhere.

Courtney Christie
So when people are getting weird requests, like, I love making those and, yeah, I want to make the things that you can’t find anywhere else just to support the people that are studying and.

Tom Heath
And what you’re producing and your stickers, those are those, like Arizona, those regionally specific. Or do you because I, you just you came across you like traveled to Australia recently. To study bugs.

Courtney Christie
That was just like a for fun her bank trip to find reptiles and. Okay. Yeah it was a little early and they’re like equivalent of monsoon. So the bug activity wasn’t amazing. Was pretty cool though. There was some cool bugs, and a lot of really cool reptiles. But, most of the art I do is local, or at least southern Arizona.

Courtney Christie
Sonoran desert based, I’d say like, like 80 to 90% is local. Because, yeah, the Sonoran Desert is a hot spot. We’re right next to the border, Mexico. A lot of stuff comes up, the habitats are quite the different. Plus we have all the sky islands. So we have so much diversity and even just reptiles. We have over 50 lizard species just in Arizona.

Courtney Christie
We have over 50 snake species just in Arizona. And, yeah, a lot of people come here, I think behind Florida, we’re like the second, maybe the third most biodiverse place in the US. Wow. And we have tons of plants, and.

Tom Heath
Specifically like southern Arizona.

Courtney Christie
I mean, yeah, the southern part is more, but all of Arizona. But yeah, especially our, our region, we just have so many really cool invertebrates, so many cool reptiles. And this is where people come to to find reptiles, too. It’s a really cool spot. Mere home of the Gila monster.

Tom Heath
Yeah.

Courtney Christie
Which, yeah. Awesome lizards and, yeah, we’re really lucky. We have a lot, a lot of diversity here.

Tom Heath
We also have a lot of swirls. And there’s one there’s like you have a favorite soil. Don’t you like the hottest.

Courtney Christie
Yeah.

Tom Heath
Couple of years. It’s got a few arms coming.

Courtney Christie
Yeah. So that soil is right outside the building at my work. Okay. So every morning when I drive in, I get a nice sunrise, and then I, like, get that in the foreground. And I actually turned one of my paintings into a sticker, which is something I said I wasn’t going to do, at least for my animal paintings.

Courtney Christie
But my best friend encouraged to do this while getting into a sticker or something. Yeah, yeah, and it’s a really cool little holographic sticker. But every time I finish a sticker, one of my goals is to take it full circle and get it like, get a picture of the sticker next to the real thing. So for the bugs and the reptiles and stuff, I have to, like, wait till the season comes around again and do that.

Courtney Christie
But for this one, I was really excited to do this. Get a picture of that, sunset next to the real thing. And I was thinking of this. The next day at work that I was going to do it. There had been like crazy rain and wind the night before, and one of the arms broke off.

Tom Heath
Oh no.

Courtney Christie
So now it’s not the same sorrow. It just has two arms instead of three. Or like the day, the day I was going to do it. Yeah, that’s the world, you know, it’s probably 80 years old or something.

Tom Heath
I was going to say you captured it at the exact right moment, and it’s, that lives in perpetuity. Through the reproductions and the stickers, the original has sold. So it’s true. It’s no longer in the gallery, but, the stickers are really fun, and, we we I think we sell a lot of those. The holographic nature of them catches the eye.

Tom Heath
The way the light, shines off of you. But in some of your artwork, it’s sort of like a combination. So you got some acrylic work of, like, an owl and a jaguar, I believe. And when we have those in the gallery, people thinking at first glance, their photographs like these are intricate.

Courtney Christie

Tom Heath
How long? Like how long? How long does something like that takes?

Courtney Christie
Very long time.

Tom Heath
Okay, good, good.

Courtney Christie
Yeah. And that’s why, like, my painting has sort of been on pause for now. I wouldn’t say continuously for years, but I do painting projects like here and there, and then I don’t touch it for like 4 or 5 months because there’s so time consuming. So it’s like a sticker project drawing from drawing to coloring to, like, sticker.

Courtney Christie
It’s like less than ten hours for the whole process. Most of the drawing part is like maybe about five, six hours. For those paintings, like my unamused, my great horned owl, that took somewhere around like 60 to 70 hours. And then my jaguar, which is muse, that one took, almost 100 hours. And I would like log my hours and say, like what I was working on just for my curiosity.

Courtney Christie
But yeah, those take a really long time. And I’m. I’m still learning, like, these are experimental. I’m trying to learn techniques and, I have some artists that really inspire me. There’s a Nick Snyder. He does tigers and lions mostly. He does other stuff too, but he’s like phenomenal. And they’re large scale, like, not quite as big as the wall, but they’re pretty big.

Courtney Christie
And I wanted to start doing really large. So each painting I do, I’m getting slightly bigger, and then.

Tom Heath
Run out of room because you got some bigger ones already. Yeah.

Courtney Christie
Another artist, Carla Grace. She’s. She lives in Australia. She’s actually South African, and she does a lot of mammals, but she also does really, really detailed, mostly mammals, but she does all kinds of, like, she does occasional birds and sometimes reptiles, but mostly mammals. And she is just phenomenal. Those two are like my biggest inspirations. And that’s if you look them up, you can see that’s what I where I’m trying to go is like learning techniques and stuff is just that, that level.

Courtney Christie
There’s so talented and.

Tom Heath
Well, I don’t think you’re you’re too far behind. I know there are people in the gallery that they will come in and they will look at your work and they’ll study your work, and I, I don’t think it’s going to be very long before people are reaching out to you as their inspiration, because you’re it’s it’s beautiful. It’s technically correct, but it’s, it’s also you’ve captured not just the, the, the realism of the animal.

Tom Heath
You’ve captured the beauty of it, and the insects in the moths and the butterflies, you’ve put them in positions and places in ways that they’re just. So this is extremely, flattering for them as well.

Courtney Christie
Thank you. Yeah. That’s right.

Tom Heath
I think that’s Courtney Christy can check out more on our website. Tucson gallery.com. A lot of the pieces that we talked about. So our sun, muse, unamused, which kind of funny those are together.

Courtney Christie
That was intentional.

Tom Heath
Yeah, it was that. No, but those were the reproductions are available, and we still have, unamused, the Great Hornet, the, we still have, in the gallery, the stickers, though I think that’s more they’ve got to come in to see those and we don’t really have we’ve got some reproductions online, but not stickers.

Tom Heath
I think those are something you need to come in to really check out. If you get your collection, even if you’re.

Courtney Christie
Some of my.

Tom Heath
That’s perfect. Yeah. If you’re listening in the world.

Courtney Christie
That’s my.

Tom Heath
Paintings. Radio. She’s holding up her sticker holder, which also looks like a water bottle or something, but I love her.

Courtney Christie
Not that one.

Tom Heath
Of her critters.

Courtney Christie
Oh, my. Bugs. Yeah.

Tom Heath
Yes. Bugs and snakes. And then the Sahara sun. And so I really appreciate your time today.

Courtney Christie
Yeah. Thanks for having me. Thank you.

At Tucson Gallery, we believe that art has the power to capture not just images — but emotions, memories, and the very soul of a place.
Few artists embody this more than Mike Berren, whose digital streetscapes are colorful tributes to Tucson’s most beloved landmarks and hidden gems.

Using his masterful eye for detail, Mike recreates iconic theaters, historic neighborhoods, charming coffee shops, and bustling downtown streets — pixel by pixel — preserving the spirit of Tucson even as the city continues to evolve.

The Art of Digital Streetscapes

Mike’s streetscapes are more than just paintings. They are carefully constructed mosaics, built from hundreds of individually photographed and digitally hand-painted elements. Each building, each sign, and each slice of sidewalk is crafted with care, combining into vivid portraits of Tucson’s neighborhoods and culture.

What started during the isolation of the COVID-19 lockdown — as a way to support local businesses and keep a sense of community alive — has grown into a full artistic movement, capturing the places that mean the most to Tucsonans.

Explore familiar locations like:

• The historic Hotel Congress
• The vibrant Fourth Avenue District
• Barrio Viejo’s colorful architecture
• Neighborhood diners, coffee shops, and churches
  — all brought together into vibrant samplers that feel alive with local spirit.

A Journey From Science to Art

Mike’s path to becoming an artist was as unique as his work.
A former research psychologist and university instructor, Mike always had a gift for helping people visualize complex ideas. Over time, that gift evolved into a love for visual storytelling through art.

Inspired by travels to Santa Fe and fueled by a desire to create during quiet evenings, Mike found his true voice not by mimicking others, but by forging his own distinctive style.
His digital paintings reflect both technical skill and a deep emotional connection to the city he now calls home.

More Than Art — A Conversation with Tucson

Every streetscape Mike creates is a living conversation between Tucson’s past and present.
Some pieces celebrate thriving businesses and familiar gathering places. Others spark deeper emotions, as residents share memories of places lost to time. Praise and debate alike have followed his work — proof that his art matters to the people it portrays.

Mike embraces it all, knowing that true art doesn’t just capture a building — it captures a story, a feeling, and a community.

Explore Mike’s Artwork

Discover the full range of Mike Berren’s original digital paintings, prints, and Tucson streetscapes available at thetucsongallery.com/artists/mike-berren/.
Bring a piece of Tucson history — pixel by pixel — into your home.

🌵 Stay Connected

Follow Tucson Gallery on Instagram and Facebook for artist updates, live events, and exclusive looks inside Tucson’s thriving art community!

🔔 Subscribe to our podcast on SoundCloud and YouTube to hear the inspiring stories behind the art.
❤️ Support local artists — support Tucson.

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Transcript

Tom Heath
Welcome back to another episode of Meet the Artist. It’s a production of the Tucson Gallery, which is located in downtown Tucson. 300 East Congress, or right across the street from Hotel Congress. We’re in the same block as the Rialto Theater, and, we have over 35 artists represented in the gallery, and occasionally we get them to come in and showcase their their talent on the show.

Tom Heath
And we we talk with them, asking questions. You can get all the details on the, Tucson gallery.com website. There’s a past episodes as well as bios of all 35 artists. Available. And today we are joined by Mike Barrett. Mike, welcome.

Mike Berren
Thank you. Excited me excited. I’m excited. Nervous and excited.

Tom Heath
Nervous. And don’t be nervous. This this. There’s only like three people that watch. And so we’re good. We’re good. Yeah. Mike, you came to us. My business partner, Tony Ray had, He had seen your work and was trying to get Ahold of you. And then you happened to come into the gallery for a tour. We were doing, and you said, oh, here’s some work that I’m doing.

Tom Heath
And I showed it to Tony Ray, and he’s like, I’ve been trying to get this guy. I mean, so you’re really. You’re famous.

Mike Berren
It’s really. It was such a coincidence at that. And I’ll tell you a few more of the coincidences with the gallery, but, it really started with a real estate agent who had sold a condo that my wife and I had owned. And, ever since it sold out, we kind of get together occasionally, and, I’ll bring her paintings as I do them, which was bring in our office.

Mike Berren
And then at Thanksgiving, we’d go to her office and she’d hand out food items or whatever. And one day I was there and she said, hey, there’s this tour going on that downtown you might be interested in. And I just had finished a painting downtown, gave a tour, and she said, there’s a tour guide and it’s I will give him one, two and had no idea.

Tom Heath
I.

Mike Berren
Was the tour. I know, I know, and.

Tom Heath
I still have that. Yeah. So yeah, I was very excited. Excited to get that. And you, your work is, is a little bit interesting. We’ve got a few different pieces in the gallery because you’ve got some more traditional, paintings. Right. But a lot of what is very popular right now are your streetscapes, you know, which those are very uniquely done.

Tom Heath
What’s the process for that?

Mike Berren
There is there’s I’ll tell you the process, but I’ll also tell the history because again, it really is phenomenal history of those. So I’ve previously been doing individual buildings or even, Native American pueblos or whatever. And as Covid started, there’s a the eclectic cafe on the northeast side of town. I’d had paintings there for years, and like all the other restaurants in town, they were hurting staff wasn’t, you know, able to work or whatever.

Mike Berren
So I said, you know what? Why don’t we try something? I’ll do a painting of, the eclectic along with a couple other cafes, and maybe people will buy it. And we just put that into a tip jar. And I started posting on the various Facebook pages, you know, if you’re from Tucson, if, Tucson community, etc. and I post, here’s what this thing might look like.

Mike Berren
And lo and behold, people started saying, oh, you know, include such and such. But Frank’s restaurant, here and there’s other one, and I do it and I post it again and partially I think people like the art, but partially other people just like me were at home. They weren’t getting out. And so I’d spend the day painting.

Mike Berren
And the next day people were commenting and getting really excited about it. And it sold a ton of them. Oh, good. And partially for the art, but partial. I think people were just interested in wanting to help out. The eclectic guy was the very first street art scape I had done.

Tom Heath
So define what the street scape is. We, I mean, you can see it on on the Tucson Gallery’s website. We’ll have things on our Facebook page which kind of walk them through it.

Mike Berren
A few different types. So the, the one that we’re talking about, the downtown would be a location okay. So it would be all the various potential. So I can’t include everything. But I think the title of that one was Arts and Entertainment Downtown. And I always put parenthetically a sampler. Okay. And it would be that others might be a theme or it’s not going to be one location, but it’d be Mexican restaurants.

Tom Heath
Or diners.

Mike Berren
Or diners or whatever it happened to be. And not as much now. But at the beginning, when I was doing these, can I go on Facebook in the morning and 2 or 3 different pages and, and people will almost, they would wake up in the morning with me and they’d start commenting. And I was like the opposite, you know, Bob Ross.

Mike Berren
Yeah. Right. So I was the opposite of Bob Ross, where I’d put something on there and people try to make comments, oh, I don’t like that Bush or do this or change that, or make sure you include such and such restaurant.

Tom Heath
So and then so the streetscapes what it looks like then is it’s, it’s one painting there like the arts and the downtown arts and entertainment, the parenthetical sampler. It’s got like the Fox Theater, the Rialto Theater, hotel Congress, all the, the, the entertainment spots. And you got the images sort of aligned, like they’re all.

Mike Berren
So I basically build it like a puzzle. So I’ll start off at, let’s say Tokyo Hotel Congress. So I’ll probably take 15 or 20 photographs together, one got to get the same shading. If something on the north side of the street or the south side of the street, right. So I want to get and then I’ll start painting.

Tom Heath
As soon I get the same shading for each.

Mike Berren
Bill for each building.

Tom Heath
Okay. So you’ve got to have every different angle, every different times of day for each building.

Mike Berren
So I’m going to try and generally my favorite time is when it’s cloudy because I don’t have to worry about shout. It’s at all. So now I have a photograph of Hotel Congress and I’ll work on that independently. Do another photograph of any other art place, whether it’s, I mean, the gallery or other sorts of places, and I’ll paint each one individually.

Mike Berren
And when I say paint it, I everything’s digital. Right? So I’m doing it on my laptop. And, you know, people here at digital Art, you know, oh, you just push a button, you’re like, I, you say me downtown, right? And each one my each building, whether it’s, the proper shops or hotel Congress, whatever I’m doing, probably the bigger ones will probably take me anywhere between 70 and 100 hours to do one building.

Tom Heath
One.

Mike Berren
Building, one building, and then I’ll put them back together again in a puzzle. So you could take easily a few hundred hours.

Tom Heath
So the end result, you start with a photograph.

Mike Berren
I start with a photograph of.

Tom Heath
The building, then you digitally paint.

Mike Berren
It and I digitally paint it. And almost like building blocks where I might take a brush and paint a little bit. But part of it, if it’s a whole wall, I can just kind of take a block and I’ll put that block in there, okay. And then I’ll put a door in there.

Tom Heath
So the end result it’s, it’s I, it’s hard to explain. It’s not cartoonish but it’s, it’s not quite reality. It’s it’s definitely a highly colorized and.

Mike Berren
Highly colorized and very simplistic lines. Yeah. Certainly you have to change the shapes or size of some time. So, Fox theaters, I had on that one. It’s the sides of the building. Can’t be there. I’ve got to sure everything. Once I do the 10 or 15 buildings, then it’s a matter of going where I want to put this, almost like it’s a puzzle.

Mike Berren
Yeah, yeah. Where do you want to put this one? Where do you want to put this one? And what is the sidewalk going to look like. What is the street going to look like. And try and balance things.

Tom Heath
So I hope if you’re listening or watching, if you head over to, the Tucson Galleries website design gallery.com and look up mike’s page, you’ll see the street Cape streetscapes that we’re talking about, a lot of different things. There’s Fourth Avenue, there’s downtown, you’ve got one that’s just, missions and churches. Coffee shops. I think you said.

Mike Berren
Yeah. And I just finished my most recent one is, so I’ve got coffee or I have diners, and I just finished one on coffee and tea. Places that. It’s the first one I’ve done. It’s kind of early, early in the morning. So the sun is coming up.

Tom Heath
It’s kind of fun to see all the iconic features, all the accounting names in one, one place, like. Oh, okay, I know all those places. And just to see them on one by one page.

Mike Berren
And what’s strange is this, again, I’m sort of labeling them that is a sampler. And then also circo whatever. Because every time I finish one, two years later.

Tom Heath
There’s a new one or it once changed.

Mike Berren
Went out of business or, you know, the Mexican restaurants. I think 3 or 4 of them are gone since I did it. So here what it was, it was there.

Tom Heath
It was it was there. And one now, you know, there’s someone else there. So you could do a newer one.

Mike Berren
Yeah. We’re taking us again, less so now because we all have stuff to do. But during Covid we’re taking so personal. Yeah, you can imagine what I did. Sam Hughes neighborhood. And if you’re familiar with Sam Hughes neighborhood, there’s some traditions there and long term kind of people. And at one point, yeah, it’s kind of sit there, I look at things and I think it’s Third Street here at second or third.

Mike Berren
I think it’s Third Street that leads into the university has these large large palm trees.

Tom Heath
Yeah. I know you’re talking about.

Mike Berren
Yeah I was and so I, I included a palm tree and started getting comments about those are not natural to Sam Hughes neighborhood. That and the stories. Then people started sharing the stories about a gas station in the 1950s or 60s that was selling seeds. And I found it fascinating to me. It was just a piece of art.

Tom Heath
Sure.

Mike Berren
And people are getting so involved in what should or shouldn’t be involved in that.

Tom Heath
So so let’s take a step back. This is I mean, this is what you’re producing now. Have you indeed did you just start becoming artistic during Covid or is this a passion of yours? For years.

Mike Berren
I think I’ve always been pretty visual. Okay. My career was was not art. It’s always. I’ve been artistic.

Tom Heath
What was your career?

Mike Berren
I’m a research psychologist, so my PhD is in psychology. Okay. And I, worked in public mental health system, taught at the university. But even things like, I titled psychological testing or shot kind of stuff and statistics at the university at Pima. And even though there are people that probably knew the content better than I did, I had an ability to somehow help people visualize statistical problems or issues.

Mike Berren
So yeah, even though it was a totally different universe, I’ve had the ability to do lots of presentations, and if I prepare for them, it’s supposed to this I was able to help people understand dynamic some things that they can kind of see.

Tom Heath
As opposed to this. You’re doing great. See, you got it. If you’re listening, he’s got notes written out here. He’s got photographs. He’s your ear. You’re like, you’ve researched this and we need you know, we’re going to talk about it okay I am. So at what point then did did this artistic drive really start to take hold?

Mike Berren
Just looking for hobbies to some extent. And, my wife and I at the time lived in Lubbock, Texas when I started doing some art stuff and we used to go to Santa Fe, New Mexico and, oh, gee, I really love some of the art there. And I started just modeling some of the art and just it would be just something to do on the weekend or in evenings.

Mike Berren
If I didn’t want to work, I could do, some painting and pretty much copied other people’s things. Okay. Are you familiar with local artist Chris Rubini.

Tom Heath
And definitely know the name? Yeah, yeah.

Mike Berren
Okay. Chris is, does a lot of pottery and plates and things and really well known. And I was in a gallery she had years and years ago and she was. Look at my stuff, too. You know, I like a lot of your stuff, but you know what? You’re you’re not doing you right. You’re doing neat, or you’re doing this person, you do somebody else just do your stuff.

Mike Berren
And so I’ve tried to stick with that. And that’s why I started doing more of the buildings and things that and then the street scenes that I did are just mine. Occasional fall back and borrow with somebody else might do. I can try really hard. Just do my stuff.

Tom Heath
You have some that look like they’re like acrylic. Do you do acrylic painting and things or is it all photographs and.

Mike Berren
Or actually every. I used to do acrylic. That’s probably why the things look like acrylic. Nothing on the website or they get the you have is acrylic. Everything is digitally painted.

Tom Heath
So like the you’ve got the, the main market that’s, that’s, that’s a photograph and digitally done.

Mike Berren
So it’s a photograph. And then I will go back in and because when I, you know, again people think sometime digitally, okay, I’m going to push a button.

Tom Heath
Right, right.

Mike Berren
And what I, what I’ve done, I can blow up the, the picture a large size so I can get into the detail, that you couldn’t do if you were painting right on a canvas with a brush, but, nothing that I have currently is painted with acrylics or oil is all painted digitally. And sometimes people ask me, I, someone wrote me the other day and it has to do.

Mike Berren
I have limited editions or.

Tom Heath
The.

Mike Berren
First issue, nothing I have is is is a hard copy of an original, everything digitally painted until I print it.

Tom Heath
Well, it’s interesting because you do go in like each pixel you go in.

Mike Berren
And so I can go into change, fix.

Tom Heath
Every hours to do a single.

Mike Berren
Building. And some are quicker, but some can take a long, long time.

Tom Heath
And I know you brought in. This will be really good radio. But you brought in a photo, which I thought was fun. You’ve got the Barrio Viejo. The. It’s the market that I was talking about. And you got one version. Then you also have a more pixel sized, paint painted version.

Mike Berren
This one was, this was at the time when, again, Covid was real heavy and I was doing not street scenes, but individual buildings. And what I would do is take whether was the corner market or a rundown building and redo it. So what might this look like? Not that it’s better or worse, but what might have look like.

Mike Berren
So on the South Main Market, I did that and I posted when I was finally done with the whole thing. The original of what? The photograph, what I took, what does it look like? And then my painting. And it’s telling you earlier that. So I have a large version of this hanging in my office to remind me that one person writes in and says that this is awful.

Mike Berren
Leave it alone. You shouldn’t be messing with, historical things. We don’t like what you’re doing, blah blah blah. Then another person writes in and says that this building and store belonged to my dad’s grandfather. Back in the day, my dad lived in the building, grew up, I think your look is beautiful. And bring an old, worn building, a modern look, and to see it open and used again and it’s awesome or whatever else.

Mike Berren
And I saw I use it’s I know that some people don’t like what I do and many people really like it. And one way comments. But to me it sounded interesting how just a paint. Just a painting.

Tom Heath
Yeah, well, you get it out into the world and you just. No, no, no, what’s what’s going to happen? Well, Mike, I appreciate your time today. Thanks for sharing the story. If you want to learn more about Mike, you can head over to the, Tucson Gallery’s website. It’s, Tucson gallery.com on there. You’ll have, a list of, artists, and there’s podcasts and stories and a lot of photography as well as artwork available.

Tom Heath
There’s also a calendar of events, because sometimes the artists are in the gallery to to say hi and meet their adoring fans or some of their maybe angry detractors coming into, you don’t know with Mike, he’s he’s a pop star. He’s a pop star. But, Mike, I really appreciate your time today.

Mike Berren
Well, I appreciate my love coming here. Thanks, Tom.

Tom Heath
Thank you.

Mike Berren
Perfect tickets. You know, worthy. But I shouldn’t mention their upcoming events. It got, Sheila and then death.

Event Photos

Welcome to the Tucson Gallery’s exclusive “Meet the Artist” series, where we celebrate the incredible talents and stories of our featured artists. In our latest installment, we had the privilege of hosting Rob Waters, a distinguished representational artist known for his unique ability to capture the essence and spirit of his subjects. This event, titled “Capturing Essence: Rob Waters on the Art of Seeing Differently,” offers a deep dive into Rob’s artistic journey and his philosophical approach to art.

About Rob Waters: Rob Waters is celebrated for his exceptional skill in creating artworks that reflect the way we truly see the world. His pieces are characterized by lost and found edges, dynamic gestures, and familiar shapes, all of which come together to create a vivid and authentic visual experience. Rob’s journey through various artistic mediums ultimately led him back to his passion for oil painting, where he has found the freedom to express the fluidity and depth of his subjects.

Event Highlights:

• The Artistic Journey: Rob discusses his transition from graphic design to rediscovering his passion for oil painting, fueled by the gift of a beautiful easel.
• Philosophy of Art: Insights into Rob’s philosophy of staying loose and free in his work, allowing the medium to speak for itself and capturing the true essence of his subjects.
• Emotional Resonance: Exploration of how Rob uses abstract media to evoke emotional responses and open windows for viewers to experience the world through his eyes.
• Techniques and Styles: A look at Rob’s diverse range of techniques and styles, from oil painting to staccato pencil lines and sky sketches.
• Community and Connection: Rob’s experiences in various artistic communities, including his time in New York, Boston, and Tucson, and how these environments have influenced his work.
• Viewer Interaction: The importance of viewer interpretation and interaction with art, as discussed through Rob’s candid stories and experiences.

Transcript Excerpt: During the podcast, Rob shares: “I relish and revel in paint strokes and the consistency of thick paint. When you step back, you can take it in as a whole. Up close, you can see what my brush was doing. It’s all about capturing movement and attitude in a quick, gestural way.”

Listen to the Full Episode: To dive deeper into Rob Waters’ artistic world, listen to the full episode of “Meet the Artist” on our SoundCloud page.

Watch the Event Video: Catch the entire conversation and see Rob’s expressive work in action by watching the video podcast on our YouTube channel.

Explore and Engage:

• Explore More of Rob Waters’ Work: Discover Rob Waters’ incredible artworks and learn more about his artistic journey on his artist page.
• Join Our Next Event: Don’t miss out on our upcoming events! Stay updated and be part of our vibrant art community by following our event calendar.
• Follow Us: Keep up with the latest news, events, and artist features by following Tucson Gallery on Facebook and Instagram.

About Tucson Gallery: Located at 300 E Congress St, Tucson, AZ 85701, Tucson Gallery is dedicated to supporting local artists by providing a space to showcase their art, engage with the community, and connect with a global audience. We offer a wide selection of art, gifts, and merchandise created by Tucson’s modern, thought-provoking, and forward-thinking artists.

For more information about our live events, podcasts, and the wide array of art we offer, visit Tucson Gallery.

Thank you for your support, and we look forward to seeing you at our next event!

Transcript (Unedited)

Tom Heath
Welcome back to another installment of Meet the Artist. It’s a production of the Tucson Gallery. We are down here in downtown Tucson at 300 East Congress Street or in the proper shops across from Hotel Congress, or really close to the Rialto Theater. And we have about 35 featured artists in the gallery. Every now and then we get one of them to give up a few of their hours.

Tom Heath
In an evening, they come in and meet their fans. And, when they’re here, we recommend doing a podcast so we can preserve their oral history for, posterity sake. And tonight we have, Rob waters with us. So, Rob, welcome to meet the Artist guys.

Rob Waters
Thank you. Thanks very much. Good to be here.

Tom Heath
All right. Well, we, we are in downtown Tucson. And if you look a lot of your work, it looks like you might spend some time in downtown Tucson yourself.

Rob Waters
I do, I do, I try to get it all over town, but downtown is a favorite spot.

Tom Heath
And when I first looked at your, the work that you were doing, some of the things that stood out to me were like your doorways and, your your barrio photo, images. So they’re they’re really just stunning.

Rob Waters
Well, thank you. Thank you so much.

Tom Heath
You’re welcome. Well, I’m going to invite you on a podcast and insult you. Your brush strokes are too heavy.

Rob Waters
It’s embarrassing. This is not a critique. Thank goodness. Okay.

Tom Heath
Huge, huge fan. This is, you know, part of the reason why Tony right there and I opened the gallery is, is individually, we don’t have much talent. So collectively, we can lean on, the talents of our community and take some, some credit for sharing it with the world.

Rob Waters
No, thanks. Thanks for supporting local artist. I really appreciate it. We all do.

Tom Heath
Thank you. Well, we’re happy to do it now. Yeah. If I remember correctly, reading your bio, which is available on the Tucson Gallery’s website, you are not a native Tucson. That’s right. You’re California.

Rob Waters
California, Southern California, Ontario, California, outside of Los Angeles.

Tom Heath
I’ve been in the airport. Yes, that’s about the extent of my area passed through.

Rob Waters
There used to be a racetrack there, too. That was a it no longer exists, but it.

Tom Heath
Were you, were you a transplant then from Southern Cal, did you like, did you lose a bet? Because most people don’t leave Southern California like San Diego in that area to come here, right?

Rob Waters
What got into me? I actually I grew up in Southern Cal. I went to school, in San Diego, undergraduate. I went to Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. And then I sort of the coop I moved to New York City.

Tom Heath
Okay. And that makes a little more sense than okay. Yeah, West coast, East coast, kind of explore the world, right?

Rob Waters
So I popped around a few places. So it’s been been a fun experience.

Tom Heath
But what and what brought you what hopped you into Tucson? What was the.

Rob Waters
Okay, well, let’s see. So I did move. Okay. I was in New York, was in graphic design. I spent a lot of my life as a graphic designer. Okay, but I studied illustration in art school, and, decided I. I needed to make some money, so graphic design was a, a great transition for me.

Tom Heath
Yeah, I mean, I, I didn’t realize that you had studied illustration in college. I needed graphic design, but I realize you’d studied that, right?

Rob Waters
No. Yeah, I was there for a couple of years at Art center, and, it was a great experience. Is a great. It was like graduate school. Yeah. Art center is a really intense program. They’re known for their industrial design. Okay. Graham. And and they do a lot of, putting out a lot of, automotive designers that are top notch.

Tom Heath
Oh, wow.

Rob Waters
And illustrators and, and so the finest illustrators have gone through Art Center College of Design. And so I hope that that would sort of osmosis is a.

Tom Heath
Know what feels like an osmosis of that osmosis.

Rob Waters
It I think it did. It still is. I still remember those days. And, and the things that were learned and talked about it. Yeah. Okay. So good good. Good experience. Good. Very.

Tom Heath
And so you’re, you’re, you’re in New York, you’re working I mean that’s a great place to be if you’re in design and illustration and you’re probably working for what were you like one of those mad men? Were you working on Madison Avenue? Right.

Rob Waters
Quite. Not quite. No. I was I actually worked at the Met Opera. I oh, I was in that opera for about seven years as a graphic designer. I worked in that merchandizing department, and did, a lot of, it’s, album, jacket, design and, and programs. And I really, I mean, like, I what am I saying?

Rob Waters
Like the program notes and the jacket, the, the all of the things that surround them.

Tom Heath
For the opera.

Rob Waters
Yes. Okay. Opera. I didn’t know too much about opera, when I took the job, but it was a great education again. And and just being at Lincoln Center every day was pretty easy.

Tom Heath
Oh, I can only imagine. I mean, if you ask how old you were at this point, you.

Rob Waters
I’m sure, but I won’t tell you. Perfect.

Tom Heath
Ask anything you want.

Rob Waters
I was about how old I was. Probably the 27.

Tom Heath
Oh, my gosh, 27 years old in New York looking at Lincoln City. Oh my gosh.

Rob Waters
Exactly.

Tom Heath
That’s like. That’s like the dream if you’re in design, right? I mean, you got to be surrounded by all these people that are just feeding off this, the same energy.

Rob Waters
Yeah. Yeah, it was a great place to live. And, a hard place to live to. It was, not as hard as now, but I wish I had been able to sink my, pocketbook into some real estate at that point.

Tom Heath
Yeah, yeah, should have cut out.

Rob Waters
But but it was a good time. I tried to get back there once a year. And just do theater and. Yeah. Okay. And values and whatnot.

Tom Heath
So you still have some of those connections that I would imagine reforms, some relationships there over the years.

Rob Waters
A lot of people have moved on. Okay. Passed away. It was a period of, 80, 1981 was, you know, Aids was hitting the world. It came to New York pretty badly. Yeah. My friends have, passed on.

Tom Heath
I know it’s a.

Rob Waters
Sobering, sobering time, I.

Tom Heath
Can imagine. Yeah, all the excitement, but, yeah, the I don’t tend to gloss over all the. I mean, you’re the you’re the melting pot, right? Everyone is there. All the excitement, all the fun. But with that, all of the challenges and the and then the the difficulties.

Rob Waters
Right, right. But it was a good, good time to be there as a young, young person, a younger person.

Tom Heath
A good place to visit as a as a more, seasoned person.

Rob Waters
Exactly, exactly.

Tom Heath
You got a lot more money in the pocket that can maybe can afford a few more things there.

Rob Waters
Yeah, but my, what brought me here to Tucson? My partner, got, a position with Arizona Theater Company, and he ran Arizona here.

Tom Heath
Oh, right down here. Yeah. Oh, Scott. Okay.

Rob Waters
Yeah. So he ran Arizona theater companies, managing directors for six years. Okay. And so that brought me this direction that I love to saw.

Tom Heath
What time frame was this?

Rob Waters
This was, hello, 89 to 95.

Tom Heath
Okay.

Rob Waters
Yeah. And then moved to Chicago again. And, and during that time here in Tucson, I was doing graphic design and some illustration as well, but, freelance, my time here then moved to Chicago, began doing graphic design and, a variety of things. I wasn’t painting like I am today. What got me into into painting?

Rob Waters
Was, my partner, Robert got me at a wonderful easel. We were living on the North shore of Boston at that time there.

Tom Heath
And Boston, we’re just in Chicago.

Rob Waters
I know, so it was the truth.

Tom Heath
Are you, like, on the run? Yes. Rob, water is really your name. That seems like pretty, pretty coincidental for someone who dabbles with watercolor to rob water.

Rob Waters
Exactly. It’s a little too obvious, right? Yeah, it’s a pseudonym.

Tom Heath
I actually, yeah. I don’t tell anybody my real name anyway. So you you’re you’re in Boston and you get an easel for from Robert.

Rob Waters
Yes. And, so you got to get back to painting and I did, and I just have not turned back. And I been enjoying painting a lot more and and, showing and selling. That’s always good. So, so, yeah, it’s, it’s been a good pass. And I still do design. Graphic design a little bit, a little pro bono right now, but, but my painting and drawing, I have a variety of styles.

Tom Heath
Yeah, that was something I wanted to touch on because a lot of the artists that I. And everyone has a creative side that they delve into. But you, yours is a little bit harder to narrow down because you don’t have just a medium you like oil painting of water color. You do, pencil. Right? Right. Yeah. So you do have all these different formats, and I know a lot of artists can, but they don’t necessarily produces prolifically as you do in all of these different areas.

Rob Waters
Thanks. Yeah, I try to I just try to wear several different hats and I, I get bored. So I have a, you know, a variety.

Tom Heath
Of I’ve mastered oil painting. It’s time for something else. Exactly.

Rob Waters
Yeah. You know, I don’t think I can say I’ve mastered it. You know, it’s always a work in progress, but I, I’ve had some I feel like I’ve had some successes with oil painting and, and that’s been really good. It’s been a good adventure. But I, I’ve always been drawing, I’ve drawn since I was a kid. Yeah. But and, and, even in New York, I was doing graphic design.

Rob Waters
I was, I would draw at the Art Students League after work. And work from a life model and, and that’s always been a part of my, my training and my love. I really enjoyed working on the model and working with a group of people, you know, a group of artists that, that come to get the job from the figure.

Rob Waters
That’s always a great study. And, the good practice, good mileage to get. So. So, yeah, I do have a lot of figure drawings. But I don’t show them on my website that much. In terms of my sketches, I do a lot of sketching on airplanes. I have what I call sky sketches, and I draw people on the airplanes.

Tom Heath
That should be a whole thing on your website. Skies. Okay.

Rob Waters
It is.

Tom Heath
I have to go check that out. Sky sketches.

Rob Waters
Yeah. Look under my my sketchbook, sketchbook art and, it is fun. It’s fun stuff. So I have that style and I have the watercolors, colored figures that I do work from, from, nice models and, they’re, they’re fun to do. Not. It’s fun.

Tom Heath
But I was reading, the, some of the stuff that you have on your website, I really appreciated your candor and your your philosophy towards art because you said something. A lot of artists don’t always admit that. Sometimes they do things quickly. And I’m not saying they rush it, but. But you. You intentionally do not take. Like you said, you’re not laborious about your art.

Tom Heath
You like it to flow at a certain speed.

Rob Waters
Right? Yeah. I think that there’s sometimes you lose the freshness of the piece if it’s belabored, at least for me. And, I like the gesture of a brushstroke, not, not overdoing it. When I’m working with the signature, gestures are always so exciting to see where, where you can capture, movement and attitude in a, let’s figure, quickly.

Rob Waters
Yeah. It’s, it’s been a good learning process.

Tom Heath
Really. Yeah. I just I appreciate that and I think, you know, and of course since we’re, we’re doing a podcast, it’s all about me as the host, I found really the same thing when I, when I first started doing podcasts, I was a perfectionist and I would cut and I would edit in a restate and I’d go back and forth and, and there’s, there’s a continuity that just got lost and everything was was articulated correctly, but it didn’t flow properly.

Tom Heath
And I can, you know, now we just we record if there’s errors and we say things as long as they’re not, you know, oh, you know, really bad. Right. We let it slide and more more errors. But there’s also a better product at the end. And I’m not saying your art’s filled with errors, but but I he’s looking at me like, what’s wrong?

Tom Heath
What’s wrong with my art? But what I say, you know, that slow, that spontaneity that you get that inspiration, it flows through and you can see it in and in your work.

Rob Waters
No thank you. And I do think that my artwork is filled with errors. I mean, it’s, it’s sort of process. My, I, I’d like to think that my work shows a process. And, even in my, my sketches, I don’t always put down the right line. But then I corrected, you can still see where I’ve gone at first, and then I’ve gone back to correct.

Rob Waters
I, I kind of like that process where you, where it’s like, oh yeah, that’s that wasn’t quite right. Let me try it again. So yeah.

Tom Heath
Cuz you’re, you’re, you are showing that process from start to finish. You’re showing the entire iteration of that piece of art versus hiding some of it because you, you didn’t like the way it looked and that that’s that’s brave in some ways I think.

Rob Waters
Or stupid, I don’t.

Tom Heath
Either way. I mean, usually it’s hard to tell between the two right here. He’s you saw a fine.

Rob Waters
Line, but.

Tom Heath
One of the first pieces you brought into the gallery was Holy Week, and it was a picture of a of a barrio setting a door, a lot of a lot of vegetation around it. And, when we were hanging it, it was interesting because my two businessperson and I were here and it was late on a Wednesday night.

Tom Heath
We had just reset the entire gallery, so we’re kind of tired and we’re looking at it and this, this thought and, and bear with me till the end of the to the end of the sentiment here. The way we looked at it, it seemed like, you know, this, this maybe isn’t our favorite piece of Rob’s. And, you know, we’re just right up close on it.

Tom Heath
And then we put it on the wall and we walked away from it a few feet, and all of a sudden, all this depth and richness sort of popped out that we couldn’t see right up close anyway. Oh my gosh, this is one of Rob’s best works. We love this piece.

Rob Waters
Thank you, thank you.

Tom Heath
Is that is that an intentional technique or are we just really tired.

Rob Waters
Or were you doing drugs? I don’t know, no. I think that was intentional. I, I don’t, I’m not a photo realist, but I, I think I want to I’m looking up at the piece up in the corner, just to remind me, remember, what it was like to paint it. And I do relish and revel in paint strokes and the consistency of sick paint and paint.

Rob Waters
But whatever the case may be that I got that one pretty sick in the foreground with the.

Tom Heath
Vegetation, and that might be what it is. But, you know, just from that you get to to 5 to 6ft away from it and you’re staring at it and it really, it really takes on a different character than when you’re right on.

Rob Waters
Right. So you have to step back and take it in, and it comes together more, as a, as a whole. You get up close, you can see what my brush was doing.

Tom Heath
It was very representative of the barrio. Yeah. I think you have a lot of work. It’s not exclusively to downtown, but a lot of what you bring into us because we’re located in downtown is is, you know, kind of the artwork that we have is a lot of focus on that. But your your website is from.

Rob Waters
Rob waters fine art. Dot com.

Tom Heath
Fine art. Yes. Nice.

Rob Waters
Easy to find. Yes. Not water’s fine. Okay. Yeah.

Tom Heath
And you know, we also have a lot of things on our, on our, on the Tucson galleries, web page with your artist. On your artist bio, there’s merchandise that can be purchased and things of that nature. In the gallery, we’ve got cards and some originals and, a few, reproductions, I believe that we’ve got in here.

Tom Heath
Right. So it’s it’s a great chance. If you’re not familiar with Rob waters work, head to Rob Waters Fine arts.com, or head over to the Tucson gallery. Dot, dot com and check it out. And if you’re on the Tucson Galleries page, maybe sign up for our events. Because these meet the artists things, they pop up training as we get into the fall, start doing them more, you know, monthly, and, you just never know who’s going to stop by and, and share a little love and, and, and, and tell us about their, their techniques and their style and share a cocktail and have a fun time.

Rob Waters
Yeah. All all that is rolled up into this one corner.

Tom Heath
Yeah.

Rob Waters
It’s it’s great what you would you provide here for the community.

Tom Heath
Do you have social media that people can follow. Do you do social media.

Rob Waters
Yeah I post my, my work on Facebook and and Instagram as well.

Tom Heath
As a Rob waters fine art there as well.

Rob Waters
You know, I should know that address if you just Google or if, you.

Tom Heath
Know, we’ll figure it out.

Rob Waters
Here’s fine artist. It’s not from some might be. Yeah I want AW1228. I’m not sure that’s my birthday, so.

Tom Heath
Well, 1 to 2, 1220.

Rob Waters
8 or 28. Yes, I got one.

Tom Heath
Yeah. We’re halfway there for you.

Rob Waters
We’re halfway here. Right.

Tom Heath
But if you have any, any desire to check out Rob’s rock, you can do it at the to sign galleries.com or or his website. Check out the Instagram or Facebook. And of course, we’ll be linking to a lot of things through our Facebook page. And Rob, I appreciate you taking the time today to share with us.

Tom Heath
I’m, I’m glad that you made it back to Tucson and and hopefully the heat’s off and you can stick around for a while and whatever, whatever statute of limitations is expired and you’re able to.

Rob Waters
Well thank you. Yeah. My past has been a little convoluted, and I, I may have made it more confusing the should at the end, but, yeah. Thanks for following my track and what got me here. I love Tucson. It’s my home. It’s a great place.

Thank you for listening to Meet the Artist. This is a weekly production by the Tucson Gallery, located inside of the proper shops at 300 East Conca Street in Tucson, Arizona. The mission of the Tucson Gallery is to support local artists by providing a space to show their art, a forum to engage with their audience, a virtual presence to connect with global patrons, an outlet to earn a fair price and opportunity to hone their business skills.

Head over to the Tucson gallery.com for more information about our live events. Listen to other Meet the Artists podcast and check out the wide selection of art, gifts and other items created by Tucson’s modern, thought provoking and a forward thinking artist.

Event Photos

Embark on a journey into the artistic world of Ralph Philabaum, where every stroke tells a story and every color sings a tune. Join us on our website as we unfold the tale of a painter who colors beyond the lines of tradition, weaving a narrative that’s as vibrant as his watercolors. Ralph’s odyssey from a house painter to an artist who captures the spirit of the Southwest with a brush and palette is not just inspiring—it’s a testament to the power of following one’s passion.

A Canvas of Curiosity

Dive into the essence of Ralph’s artistry, where Aztec mythology meets the wilds of the Southwest. Discover how a simple bottle of tequila sparked a creative explosion, leading to a series of watercolor masterpieces that blend cultural motifs with the intricate details of local fauna.

The Alchemy of Art

Explore the meticulous techniques behind Ralph’s watercolors, where every detail is a deliberate stroke of genius. From the use of a single-hair brush to the magical corrections made with a dab of water, Ralph’s work is a delicate dance between precision and spontaneity.

From Palette to Passion

Ralph’s journey is more than just a transition from one medium to another; it’s about finding one’s true calling amidst the colors and canvases. His story is a vivid reminder that it’s never too late to embrace your creative destiny.

Episode Highlights:

• Ralph’s unexpected transition from house painting to watercolor artistry, sparked by inspiration from a bottle of tequila.
• The influence of Aztec mythology and Southwestern wildlife on his detailed watercolor pieces.
• His unique approach to art, utilizing extremely fine brushes and a meticulous technique to achieve intricate designs.
• The challenges and joys of working with watercolors, including the ability to correct mistakes and the process of learning through experimentation.
• Ralph’s reflections on his artistic journey, personal growth, and the reception of his work by the art community and enthusiasts.

Immerse Yourself in Ralph’s World

Don’t just listen to his story—experience it. Browse through a gallery of candid shots from our podcast event, making you feel as though you were right there, witnessing the magic unfold. See Ralph’s artistry through his eyes, and let your imagination roam free in the landscapes he’s so intricately painted.

Engage and Explore

• Connect with Us: Have questions or want to express your admiration for Ralph’s work? Reach out through our contact page. We’re always eager to converse with fellow art enthusiasts.
• Dive Deeper into Ralph’s Art: Visit Ralph’s artist page to delve deeper into his portfolio.
• See the Art in Person: Experience the vivid textures and intricate details of Ralph’s work firsthand at the Tucson Gallery, located at 300 E Congress St, Tucson, AZ 85701. Our doors are open Thursday to Friday from 3 PM to 9 PM, Saturday from 11 AM to 9 PM, and Sunday from 11 AM to 5 PM. Come by and let Ralph’s watercolors transport you to a world where every hue tells a story.

Join us in celebrating the artistic voyage of Ralph Philabaum—a journey of exploration, discovery, and boundless creativity.

Transcript (Unedited)

Tom Heath

We are back for another installment of Meet the Artist, a production of the Tucson Gallery down here in downtown Tucson. We’re on 300 East Congress, we’re in the Rialto Theater Block across from Hotel Congress, and we feature the work of 30 local artists, actually I think more than that at this point. And sometimes, every now and then, we’re lucky enough to get them to come into the gallery and talk about their work and when they do, we put a microphone in front of them and ask them a bunch of questions and then they get mad at us and they never come back. So we want to take full advantage while they’re here and today we have, I think the only artist in our gallery that works with watercolor, we’ve got Ralph Philabon.

Ralph Philabaum

How are you doing, sir?

Tom Heath

I’m good. Thanks for having me. A little bit closer.

Ralph Philabaum

All right. How are you doing, sir? There we go.

Tom Heath

That’s perfect there. So when we were looking to set up this gallery, my business partners and I, we had a little understanding of art. My partner’s more than myself. And I got to tell you, over the last year and a half, I have learned so much. Like every artist, there’s so much ways that you can create beauty in this world. You chose to use watercolors. Why?

Ralph Philabaum

I had actually never done any art with color other than silk screening prior to that. So, everything I’ve ever done has always just been black and white, ink on paper. And I saw some paintings at a restaurant in Phoenix and they’re really bright and colorful and so I thought I wanted to try something. So the first one I actually did was in colored pencil. Okay. And then I was like, well, let’s try paint. So I went with watercolor. When did you see this work in Phoenix? It was a couple of years ago, actually.

Tom Heath

Oh, so you’ve been doing this for just a few years in watercolor? 14 months, like, yeah. Are you serious? Yeah. Yeah. The intricacy of the work that you do, I mean, I would thought this is like a lifelong pattern.

Ralph Philabaum

It’s got to be the drawing or something, even drawing. I’ve always drawn like that very, very detailed but I never used a paintbrush on a canvas before.

Tom Heath

That is amazing to me. I honestly am, I thought you’ve been doing this for quite a while. Yeah. So, if you look at his work and you can see some of that on our website and you can see more in the gallery, this is extremely intricate and delicate. You know, it’s like you said you have a brush that has like one hair on it?

Ralph Philabaum

Yeah, it’s like it’s a 20 -0, it’s a 20 -0, it’s a really, really, really small, yeah.

Tom Heath

And so, I look at these things and I don’t know how someone can get that fine with a brush and watercolor and into some of these images, that’s…

Ralph Philabaum

Thanks. It’s um, you can you can ink back over also. So, if you go outside the lines, you know, typically I’ll come back with the –

Tom Heath

He just revealed the magic secret, people. I thought the lady was actually levitating. Turns out every now and then you might make a mistake and have to fix it.

Ralph Philabaum

It’s amazing what you can do with watercolor, how you can fix mistakes. You can erase it even, it’s like crazy. Wet it in paper towel and mostly gone and move on, yeah.

Tom Heath

Ah, have you erased anything? Oh, yeah.

Ralph Philabaum

That’s good then. Yeah, the guy that’s here, you know, it’s typical, I’ll be inking something in and I’ll stick my hand right in the middle of wet ink and make a big thing.

Tom Heath

Okay.

Ralph Philabaum

There’s actually ink erasers also, which have like some kind of a grit in them that you can carefully grind it away.

Tom Heath

So, you’re like working on something, you lean over and you like put your elbow in it and…

Ralph Philabaum

Yeah,

Tom Heath

yeah. It’s all over the place. Okay. That sounds more like me. That’s what I would be doing. Then what got you into art in the first place? What’s got you drawing?

Ralph Philabaum

I’ve done it since I can remember like in seventh grade, you know, it’s like I’ve always taken art and it’s something I’ve loved forever.

Tom Heath

So art in the seventh grade, it looks, you know, you’re definitely a young man but you’re out of the seventh grade. Yeah. I hope.

Ralph Philabaum

Sixty -three.

Tom Heath

So hopefully you’re not still in the seventh grade. But what, between the seventh grade and 14 months ago, what, had you been selling art? Were you doing things professionally? I’d never.

Ralph Philabaum

I had a silk screening company in the 80s. really small. It was pretty much just me and my father -in -law and mother -in -law would come help and my wife and come help with it. But I was like the salesman and the artist and then they would come help do production at night. And I did that for a little while and it didn’t make enough money to do anything with, so we shut that down. But other than that, no. I just, I drew back then and I stopped until I started messing with this thing.

Tom Heath

Wow, that just seems, I mean, I’m glad you’re doing it now, but it seems like there are a lot of years where I’m curious what would have come out of your mind. Because your stuff is very, it’s very colorful and it’s very creative. You pair, you know, Southwestern animals together and you do it in a way that’s just, it’s a unique vision.

Ralph Philabaum

Thanks, thanks. I think it’s cool and it’s very rewarding that I’m finding that others like it, you know. I never thought I could sell a painting and then moved a few of them, I mean, it’s rewarding.

Tom Heath

Your originals are actually, what size are they? They’re the same size, right? They’re 11 by 16, yeah. Which is fairly small a canvas to work off of with watercolor. I don’t know much about watercolor painters. Did you research, like, why did you pick that size? Is it just what you had in the closet?

Ralph Philabaum

No, it was just what I was comfortable with as far as the details and so forth thinking where your elbow landed Probably wasn’t gonna be quite it could land outside of it It’s a it. It’s just a comfortable size for me. I tried doing some larger ones and It was hard It’s hard for me to Not rush it. Okay, you know you want to be done with it

Tom Heath

So, the 11 by 16 is the right size and fits your style and the nice thing about technology now is the reproductions. You can get a nice reproduction on canvas that is 24 by 36 and you can fit in the space that you need. I think when Tony Ray first saw your work and we saw the reproduction and then he saw your original, he literally called me and said, you won’t believe how intricate this is. It’s 11 by 16. It goes go look at that line and see that line on the big one and then look at how he would have done that on something 11 by 16 So I again, I think we’re just very impressed with your technical skills as well as well as your vision. Thanks. I appreciate it Did you did you go to school for this?

Ralph Philabaum

Did you are you just picking it up and you just no I never went to any formal education on it You know just high school art and junior high art and like one semester of pima college art. Okay

Tom Heath

And do you mind me asking what you do, like you had to make money somehow, were you in any type of artistic environment or like what was your…

Ralph Philabaum

No, my job, I’m a painter by trade, a house painter. I have a small painting company, it’s P3 Contracting, we’re remodeling a painting contractor. So, that was primarily my art before I did this. It’s like we painted the Rialto and that’s, you know, right next door. You painted the exterior, the entry, we restored the ticket booth. That was you? Yeah. Oh my gosh. Okay. That was my art. So, that’s very artistic.

Tom Heath

Yeah, I think so. Yeah, absolutely. Because you have to bring it back to, it’s got to be modern and antique at the same time. Yeah. Again, I think you’re mixing styles back and forth like you do with your art. And it’s, I can’t even describe, you know, your art adequately, so I would definitely have people check it out on the website so they can really get this image. But where do these creature partner pairings come from? Do you see them in the nature and you’re like, hey, I’m going to put these two together or, you know, because you got like a rabbit and a javelina and

Ralph Philabaum

– Right. So, it’s going to sound like a really good story. It all started with a bottle of tequila.

Tom Heath

All right, now we’re getting to the good stuff here.

Ralph Philabaum

One of my employees gave me this bottle of suerte tequila and it had this rabbit on it And I thought this rabbit was totally cool And he had like little things on him like a diamond on his foot and so on and little sparkle things Okay, and then and then probably a year later. I saw another rabbit on a bottle of silencio mezcal and Like what what is it with rabbits and agave based spirits? So I researched it a little bit and it goes back to the Aztecs and the Aztec goddess of fertility and the agave Was my well and my well gave birth to 400 rabbit Children that she breastfed Oakley or pulque which is a rough Version of tequila or Bacanora or Mezcal. And so, these 400 rabbits were these troublemaking deities. And so, that started me on the path of drawing these rabbits and then I got tired of drawing rabbits.

Tom Heath

And the tequila ran out. Then I got a bottle of scotch. Right, yeah.

Ralph Philabaum

And this is where I went. And so, then I started to morph into this Alebrije thing where like the Oaxacan wood carvings and and the painting that are on the Oaxacan woodcarving is going on with the rabbits. The rabbits have their calavera tile patterns and it just kind of grew out from that.

Tom Heath

Well, that kind of explains the next question but I noticed in we were inventorying your work and getting it ready for the gallery, there’s definitely a lot of Aztec influences. You know, some of the pieces you sent to me and this is just ignorant on my part but I had to Google what the name of the piece was and I wasn’t 100 % sure if you’d sent it inaccurately or… Yeah, they’re kind of weird, yeah. Because there’s like the warrior god.

Ralph Philabaum

Yeah. With Szilopochtli is that hummingbird and that was the Aztec god of war and he was either represented as a hummingbird or as an eagle and as a hummingbird, he was known as the blue one and that’s why there’s so much blue in that hummingbird.

Tom Heath

Okay.

Ralph Philabaum

And so, that’s him and then Ometochtli was that one, the black rabbit. It was also known as two rabbit. So, of the 400 rabbits, only five of them had names and I can’t name them off for you. That’s okay. It’s not a test. One of them was the winged one, which is the raven and the other that I have is only totally or two rabbit. And so, as I…

Tom Heath

Like what got you into that? Was it literally the tequila that got you into the Aztec and you just started doing more and more and then all this art sort of pours from that? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. See, tequila does. It does work. It does work. If used in the right application.

Ralph Philabaum

It works in mysterious ways, yeah.

Tom Heath

It was interesting because like the winged one, I saw that and that’s a raven and that made sense to me, right? The winged one. Yeah. I didn’t realize that it had its roots in Aztec culture.

Ralph Philabaum

Yeah. That was one of the rabbits.

Tom Heath

Yeah. Do like all of your works then have some connection to that?

Ralph Philabaum

No. So, I started expanding a little bit with the javelina and that’s where it rolled off into the Alebrijes, the Oaxacan wood carving patterns and then, but a lot of it does.

Tom Heath

I was hoping because you have one called Peeps, like the Easter candy and I was like, man, I’m hoping that has an Aztec root to it. Doesn’t.

Ralph Philabaum

It has Easter candy roots.

Tom Heath

I was like, if I could tie Peeps back, then I can have a cultural snack. Right.

Ralph Philabaum

I looked at her and she was purple and it was Easter I think when I was painting that and I’m like, ah, this is Peeps.

Tom Heath

Is it, do you get into anything that doesn’t involve animals? Is it any landscapes, any people, or does everything have a…

Ralph Philabaum

Not yet. Okay. Next one, I got that grasshopper mouse that I’m working on right now, and then I think the next one I’m going to do is going to be a coyote.

Tom Heath

Okay. And again, you have to see this to understand it. You brought us in one of your originals, and please help me with the name again, Wichipotle?

Ralph Philabaum

It’s Wichipotle, and I don’t know if my novel pronunciation is accurate or not, but… Yeah, it’s like H -U -I -T -Z -I -L -P -O -C -T -H -L -I.

Tom Heath

And that’s the one I had to look up to see. It’s Zillipoke. Is that actually the name or did he like hit the wrong buttons on the phone? But other people know that. But I was looking at it and, you know, it’s the hummingbird and then I’m looking at this piece for a while and then you draw my attention, you like zero in like from outer space and you know how they bring those satellite images in down to the finest point. You just zoom all the way down and I look and you tell me and you show me, there’s this little tiny hummingbird feeder. Right.

Ralph Philabaum

Hanging off a saguaro.

Tom Heath

And it’s barely the size of like a needle, like the head of a needle hanging off of a saguaro way in the background of this photo and it’s, you know, when you look at it, it’s actually got definition. It’s not just like a red blob that’s a, it’s, anyway, I just, I just think that’s, that’s

Ralph Philabaum

fun. I put some stuff in there like that. I’ve got one called Blood Moon that has a, and now I’m not going to remember the name of the rabbit constellation, but it has the rabbit constellation in the sky. Okay. Lepus is what it’s called. Lepus.

Tom Heath

Lepus. Yeah. There’s a bee film called The Night of the Lepus, The Killer Lepus, or something filmed in Tucson. I remember seeing something about that. I may have seen it. With the killer rabbits. Yeah, it’s filmed here, so I had to see it. And it was a horrible movie. It was awesome. And I think Tequila was involved with that as well. The direction, yeah. So, 14 months into this and I’ve noticed you’ve been doing a lot of shows. You got one coming up here down. You just came back from Tuvok. You’ve got one coming up at the Museum of Art.

Ralph Philabaum

Tuvok Museum of Art this weekend, yeah, I bet, yeah.

Tom Heath

So, unfortunately, by the time this airs, that will have passed, but you’re getting out there. I mean, for 14 months. I know a lot of artists that we’ve interviewed on this show that have been doing art for years before they really get the courage to go out and into the world but 14 months that’s for the amount of work that you’ve done and being in this place it really seems like quite aggressive.

Ralph Philabaum

I’ve been in sales most of my life and so it doesn’t bother me to walk in and knock on somebody’s door and just say hey look at this what do you think it won’t hurt my feelings if you hate it you know it’s uh I’m not tender like that so I’m not afraid for somebody to say get out earlier. But yeah, it’s crazy actually. When the very first one sold and the first one that sold was the winged one. I had another guy at Petroglyphs if that’s okay. Oh yeah, of course. Petroglyphs over in the Mercado. Yeah. And he’s actually sold like 10 pieces. I mean, it’s just been really gratifying. I mean, it’s a feel -good thing. Good. Yeah, Godzilla Polk Lee just got accepted to be at Steinfeld’s for the Art Walk. Nice. So, it’s, you know, that one will be there, I think, for four or five weeks.

Tom Heath

Okay.

Ralph Philabaum

Yeah. Unless you sell it tonight. Well, that’s our goal.

Tom Heath

We want to ruin the Steinfeld Art Walk. Well, I hope we sell it, but if we don’t tonight, it’s going to move pretty quickly, as I would imagine. You haven’t put your originals out. I haven’t put any out. Yeah, so when you’re

Ralph Philabaum

selling pieces, you’re selling reproductions. Yeah, they actually blow up really cool. Yeah. The way the colors separate. But we do have a couple originals in there. I mean, do you

Tom Heath

intend to start selling originals or is that something you just… I think so. You know,

Ralph Philabaum

I didn’t know where to go with them. It was actually Tony Ray that talked to me and you guys, you and Darren. So yeah, I put some out at Tubach, just dealers.

Tom Heath

Okay. Well I think when you find the people that really get into what you’re doing, they see exactly what you’re doing, and you’re gonna find an audience in 14 months. I don’t think it’s enough time for people to really fully understand what you’re putting out. And you just keep working the shows, working the exhibits, getting the galleries, and you know, people are gonna start recognizing because there’s a distinctive style about a Ralph Filibon. Oh cool, thank you. And they’re all signed Rafa. Yeah. What is Rafa? Is that the…

Ralph Philabaum

Rafa is short for Raphael. Okay. Because art by Ralph just isn’t like there, you know.

Tom Heath

Not when you say it like that.

Ralph Philabaum

Art by Ralph. Yeah. My dad made fun of my name. My dad.

Tom Heath

Did he have anything to do with the naming of you or did he want to call you Raphael?

Ralph Philabaum

No, he named me after his best friend, you know.

Tom Heath

Just don’t be an artist. Yeah. If you do, change your name to Raphael. I saw the Rafa and I was like, you know, I assumed it was a shortened version of Ralph Philip on somewhere in there because that is a lot to paint in watercolors on a painting. You’d have to go for a larger size, 16 by 20 just to get your whole name on there. And so, we have some of the work in the gallery, you’re in a few other places. You mentioned Petroglyphs, you’re going to be at Steinfeld. What about personally? Do you have your own website? Do you have social media? How do people follow you?

Ralph Philabaum

I have Art by Rafa on Facebook and I have artbyrafa .com website that my daughter -in -law

Tom Heath

built for me. Nice. All right. Well, I can’t wait to see the next 14 months. This has just been an explosion. So, in the next 14 months, I guess this will be those interviews where I’m like, oh, I talked to him way back when when he was just getting started. That’s going to be it. And if you want to see any of Ralph’s work, if you want to, I’m sorry, Rafa’s work, Rafael, I’m not Ralph, gonna see any of his work. We’ve got several of them up on our website. We’re getting a few more up in the coming weeks. It’s the TucsonGallery .com. There’s an artist section, you can check him out as well as any of our other 30 plus artists here in Tucson. While you’re there, there’s social, or sorry, there’s a media page that has all the podcasts. So if you wanna listen to other artists or you might wanna hear the replay of this one, you can do it there. And we encourage you to check out our events page and sign up for our newsletter because you’ll get a notification once a month when people like Ralph

Tom Heath

Willebaum are coming into the gallery to highlight what they do. And that’s kind of special because if you didn’t sign up and you don’t know, you missed it. I’m sorry, but he brought in a work in progress, which is always fun. So, we’re going to get to see kind of that product before it’s finished. It’s got a big, I saw a big elbow stain on it.

Ralph Philabaum

Yeah, you can’t find it now though.

Tom Heath

Well, Ralph, I greatly appreciate your time. This is a lot of fun and I’m really excited about your future.

Ralph Philabaum

Thank you. I really appreciate the opportunity that you guys have given me. Thank you.

Tom Heath

Thank you for listening to Meet the Artist, a production by the Tucson Gallery, located inside of the Proper Shops at 300 East Conger Street in Tucson, Arizona. The mission of the Tucson Gallery is to support local artists by providing a space to show their art, a forum to engage with their audience, a virtual presence to connect with global patrons, an outlet to earn a fair price, and an opportunity to hone their business skills. Head over to TheTucsonGallery .com for more information about our live events, listen to other Meet the Artist podcasts, and check out the wide selection of art, gifts, and other items created by Tucson’s modern, thought -provoking, and forward -thinking artists.

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Transcript (Unedited)

All right, welcome back to another episode of Meet the Artist. It’s a production of the Tucson Gallery in downtown Tucson. We’re located at 300 East Congress Street. We’re across from Hotel Congress. We’re in the same block as the Rialto Theater. All kinds of good stuff happening in downtown Tucson. And Tucson Gallery is proud to be situated right here in a busy corner of Congress and Fifth. Every now and then, we’re lucky enough to have one of our famous artists from Tucson come into the gallery. And when they do we snag them put some headphones on and say let’s talk. Yeah today. We’re talking with one of our fabulous muralists The very well -known here in Tucson, and I think right now right now controversial. Yes muralist Ignacio Garcia

Yes, welcome. Hey, thank you for having me. I appreciate this time. All right, so the first question How many murals have you done four thousand five thousand? No, actually, I’ve just counted them I think maybe around 40 50. No, these are just like For the public to see but oh, yeah, the residential ones for that when I started I’m sure there’s probably maybe another 20 I think so not much not much. No, you’ve done more than that. I’m sure I have I literally went to my all my My resources there that I had and I think was around

maybe 50s to 60s. Not much. That surprised me. I mean, I know they’re big so

they take a lot of time. I think so. I don’t, I try not to rush it. That’s probably the reason why I really take my time on it and because when you have something that speaks for itself, it stands out. So, I really enjoy that and so I don’t try to mark my territory. So, you’re a quality not quantity guy. Absolutely, yeah, definitely.

I had the privilege for the other podcast to do Life Along the Streetcar. I interviewed a couple in 2023 who had recently gotten married and for their wedding they didn’t ask for gifts, they asked for money for their GoFundMe site so you could do their mural.

That’s right, that’s right. I was quite surprised, I was honored and I was like, what a great idea. And just to kind of show his love towards his wife to have this beautiful mural and what they’re all about. I was like, let’s do it, let’s do it. So I was really stoked for it.

And I remember talking with them, I said, did you ask Ignacio what to do? Did he give you an idea? And then I get the response was, you know what, we gave him some thoughts as to what we wanted to have incorporated, but we wanted him to have the freedom to create his vision of that. And that got me thinking, like how do these murals get created? Do you go to someone and say, hey, I wanna do this on your wall? Or do they come to you with a vision Or do they say, hey, we’d kind of like something that’s fun and…

It’s a little bit of everything. I think, first of all, is what they are all about. I like to kind of read their brains and kind of dissect what their personality is. And from there, I like to kind of do some research and then I kind of give that back to them and say, what do you think? And they just love it. And so kind of go back and forth. It’s a sense of appreciation of what they’re all about because I just like doing different things. I’m just very curious of what how people think and what they’re all about and I kind of like to express that So and again, it’s every projects different and I like the challenge of that. I think it’s probably because of that It’s just learning along the way and you need to meet people and surprisingly It’s just the information that I gained from that just a one -on -one person. It’s just I like it’s addicting

I mean so by the time the mural actually gets by the time you start putting paint on on a wall You you’ve done this mural dozens of times in paper and print, and you’ve worked back and forth.

Yes, it takes me at least, the research takes me probably twice as long to do it right, because to make sure to, the thing is that, you know, wherever the wall is at, you want to see how it complements the building and the surrounding. You don’t want to have like an eyesore that people will just kind of be like, and it just takes away from other beauty elements around the community or the buildings. So I try to balance everything out because it does complement the surroundings as well.

But yeah, I have to kind of make sure everything’s fine. And sometimes, you’d be surprised, I try to throw it in a little something ugly, just kind of balance it out. Because I think that’s one of my little tricks that I try to do because you have, for example, five different renders to kind of start off. You have to throw one in there that’s completely way off and just kind of weird. Just to kind of, you have to kind of refresh your eye in that way. Okay, interesting. So, but sometimes they like that. So it kind of throws everything off from the original. But I love that adventure and it kind of, it’s just, it’s always, it’s just fascinating. It’s like exploring a new territory.

every single time. So when did you know you were gonna be a muralist? At what point, I mean, did you, what were you doing before you were painting on walls? I was,

I was actually painting musicians, like celebrities, and this was… Painting

portraits of them, or painting on them, like Kiss, like going on stage? Yeah, like naked

painting on their body, you know. No, it’s portraits of what they do, because usually, I used to work in the radio station as a DJ, so I used to do live, yeah, like mixing live. And so with that, you get to meet the artist. And then before they become famous, you get to meet them in person. So that’s kind of how I got my way into it. And they kind of wanted some approach to themselves and finding out they became world famous, like Eminem, for example. I mean, that can just go on like back in the early 2000s.

So – That wasn’t in Tucson though.

It was in Tucson and in Phoenix. Okay. So this was something that kind of come came unexpected in my lab I was actually in Phoenix at that time DJing and I just I needed to come to Tucson to get away from Phoenix for a bit and it was only going to be for like three months and then I’m staying here and working in the radio for hot 98 and Yeah, so I was there for two and a half years, you know

And you meet these artists and then you would start to unlike portraits of them started doing portraits. Yeah towards the end

Clear Channel took over, so it wasn’t the same. The creative field was pretty much gone. So then slowly we just kind of networking with them and figuring out a way to help out the new artists. So at that time, musicians were actually depending on the DJs because we were playing their music in the clubs to get their word out there. So that’s how they were coming to us. We were more valuable at that time. And to see where DJs stand now, it’s unremarkable to me.

You know and so then at what point did you decide hey, I want to I want to paint on walls

So so then I had this guy That my sister was getting his hair hair done by him wanted a portrait of himself So he liked it so much. He just came up and say hey, would you like to paint my ceiling like a you know? Yes, it’s like really kind of kind of Versace, you know, you know elaborate. Mm -hmm, you know ornate house I was like, oh, yeah, it’s a really cool idea, you know, it’s like, yeah, let’s try it out. It was just more like a fun thing to do. He trusted me. I was like, you know, we can, we can always repaint it. So it was something to kind of try out. Turned out to, it ended up being like three months doing that, and every, you know, it ended up being a three month project, that was my first mural. And so, surprisingly, it just took off like crazy. So now I’m gonna show you this real quick that way you’ll see what this is my first. This is great radio people

He’s showing pictures. So I know I

Have you this radio? I would want you to to to explain what you see here real quick. Oh, no, he’s gonna put

He’s gonna flip this around on me. Oh, no

Okay, never mind. I guess I can’t find it right now. Well, what we’ll do is So this was my first mural this is like the Sistine Chapel exactly this I mean

I mean, we got to put this on the Tucson Gallery’s Facebook page so they can see this, but this looks like it’s like a church in Rome, like done by one of the great masters. That’s incredible. Yeah, that was me.

I was 23 years old. That’s you? That’s me.

Oh, yeah, we got to put this picture on Facebook so people can see that because that does not look like you. It looks like a little kid.

Yeah, that was a long time ago, and that’s how it all started. and then kind of word spread and then did a lot of these fresco kind of

because at that time that was popular yeah and now now you see a lot of public work so what does that look like how do you get into the into the public setting is that do you do audition for that or do people come seek you out at first you

just ask hey you know can I paint your wall sure you know again you know you it’s a great way to kind of get your your name out there but you know at first is, you know, let’s see, 10 years ago, people thought it was like, oh, it’s kind of cool, but it wasn’t as gravitating as it is now. I mean, now it’s like globally people want to put murals everywhere. I think it’s going to last for a long time now because it’s the only way, it’s like it’s a marketing strategy and overall it’s not like social media that’s always instant because now you’re actually seeing a big piece. So I think that’s becoming an outdoor gallery everywhere. So it’s it’s gonna pretty much gonna last there. So yeah, so yeah

I don’t know how murals work across the country But in Tucson it seems like we’ve spent a lot of time trying to create something that is Appropriate for the building appropriate for the neighborhood appropriate for the topic So it’s it’s not just something that’s just a commercial for whatever the business is. It’s really about the community

No, I I live deliberately. That was my mission at first. This was like 10 years ago to kind of create a kind of a an outdoor gallery. I don’t know why. I think it’s just that it was a stupid idea that I had at that time because you know I was like well if people go to Italy and they see all these beautiful pieces in you know in the public and it’s historic you have to see these frescoes and all that. So I’m like why can’t Tucson have that? You know what I mean? Or anywhere can have that. So I was like Tucson was a great place to breathe that. And then so And then of course, the people here are just so open and friendly and they’re like, yeah, sure. So slowly started becoming that way in the public. But then I think 2016, that’s when it kind of started. But what it really, really started was after COVID. I think after George Floyd, that kind of made the statement of putting the message across. And somehow it just kind of carried it on its own, surprisingly but I’ll never forget that. I mean

people think it’s just kind of went on on its own but I honestly think I mean it was the George Floyd incident that actually sparked that and kind of put that message across and because of that it allowed artists to really put their you know their talent in in there

and then just kind of spread it that way. I think I think the community impact is important you know economically it’s a huge win for Tucson I mean you know in the Tucson Gallery, people come in for the murals, the people come to Tucson to tour murals. I mean, the collective muralist population is creating a lot of economic development for Tucson.

Yes. And that’s something that I learned along the way that I’m like, you know, if this is gonna be something that we can provide and including with the other artists that I actually talked to them, this was actually during COVID. I talked to Joe Padgett and Jessica Gonzalez, as well as Isaac Caruso. I was trying to get Rocky Sci -Fi to kind of say, hey, let’s team up here instead of, you know, instead of being independently and kind of not knowing each other, I think let’s just kind of collaborate. So, originally, I had an idea. It’s like, so we ended up going to Joe’s Padgett’s house and then we had a meeting and I was surprised that they would follow through. So, it was really nice to the first time to actually meet other muralists exactly the same, I know, hard work that we do behind, you know, painting, to be, you know, painting a mural. But, and then since then we just kind of felt like we understood the hard work that goes along with it. So we kind of became closer because of that

because not many people understood the hard work that went behind it. So, and it’s hard to explain that to people that, you know, so we just clicked. And since then we’ve just been helping each other out and helping other artists and supporting them and trying to influence other artists, too, as well.

I know when we started the gallery, you were the first person we approached, and long story behind that, which we won’t get into here, but one of your missions at that time was to make sure that other people had an opportunity to get into the art world. It wasn’t just about selling your work, it was about giving an opportunity for others.

That was my mission for a very long time. I felt that if having these public pieces of work, one thing that I … Okay, the reason why I had a passion for that is because when I was living in LA I’d see these beautiful works and during that art movement of the street art that was happening at that time with you know Banksy and Shepard Barry Shepard Fairey you know the invader these were like the beginning stages of the street art so that was the kind of the the beginning of like being street art finally getting accepted and then but I was there I was there to see that that development happen and so and I’m like why Tucson cannot have this type of quality of work So, and then I was like, well, let’s see where it goes. Let’s see where, you know, putting these types of work and putting that quality into it because this is exactly what I felt that Tucson needed. Because before it was the art world in Tucson wasn’t not like well -received and it was just devalued. And that’s what really aggravated

me. It’s like, you know, people are really working hard to sell a painting, but they’re getting less value for it. So then I decided, people need to be exposed by this and so that’s why I decided to push it hard for myself. And I’m doing this by myself in some cases, you know what I mean? It’s something I have a mission to do to kind of influence anyone or young artists or any artist that has that ability to do that or wants to do that.

So yeah, I know you’ve been very good with your time and if you follow Ignacio, you know and reach out to him on social Media, he’s usually pretty good about responding and and where he can providing some guidance I know you’ve been very helpful to a lot of young artists. Yeah, absolutely

I mean whatever I can do any tips and stuff more than happy to do it, but it it’s hard man. It’s no joke It’s it’s a hard You know medium that to to get yourself into I mean I’m like, I’m not worried like like being outside in the cold freezing cold You know, I mean the weather is unpredictable

I went up in that lift one time with you just to get a experience and I’m like, whoa This is like it’s vertigo up here. It’s very vertical. This thing starts shaking. You’re like man. You got a paint on that

Absolutely. So that’s why I wanted you come because it was a very important to me to for you to describe it How it is as a muralist, you know in that level, you know I’m like my face is halfway burnt because you know, there’s so much Sun that kind of reflects back to the wall So I’m kind of like, freezer burnt, you know?

Well, we’re part of an event today called Meet the Artist, and I’m gonna start wrapping it up here because we got a pretty big crowd waiting to meet with you. And part of the reason why, and I kind of can’t let this go without circling back, is the controversy. So we’ve had a mural on the side of the Rialto since 2016. Yes. It’s called Jack and Bill, it’s a jackalope with Bill Walton as a little cowboy riding this jackalope. Yes. And after seven years, with you and the Rialtos, it was time to change this.

Yes.

And so what goes into that? I mean, what makes that decision for you?

So, let’s start off with this. First of all, the original idea was actually a little girl riding the jacket. It was a representation.

Are you calling Bill Walton a little girl?

I’m not, I’m in the middle, I’m in the middle. I can’t decide. So, to be honest, it’s just when the rodeo days, always that it happened here and I’m like this only Tucson has this so I’m like what a great way to kind of represent Tucson that way you know I mean so I thought of like you know instead of having a horse you know or like anything I was like how cool would it be a jackal it would be because not many people knew what a jackal it was and so so I came out this concept and I just like this is great the day before I started wanted to start to paint they they ended up changing it to, hey, can you change him, can you change it to Bill Walton? And I’m like in front of all these people here, and I’m like, who’s Bill Walton? And they’re like, what, you don’t know? I was like, I’m sorry, I don’t, I’m just an artist.

If you don’t know, Bill Walton is a sportscaster, he’s a former basketball player, son played at the U of A, and if you listen to U of A broadcast, he is sometimes, he’s a little bit verbose, and that means some people like him, some people don’t, but a lot of people, if you follow U of A basketball, at least know him.

Exactly. It’s amazing to know that this just even just the opportunity to know that that change I it was completely unexpected on my end, but to know that that controversial situation definitely Kind of put me in the middle of it, but I’m still the same. I I don’t know I’m not into sports. So I’m not I don’t know much Yeah, so it’s like one of those people that really hate them or people love them or just don’t know so I’m in the category that I just don’t know because I’m not into much of the sports, so I’m sorry.

But then that’s been up there for a while, and now what you’re painting is, tell us about the one you’re doing.

So the reason why it was, for a while I’ve been wanting to paint over it because it felt like, it didn’t feel like it was downtown, it was more like a university kind of a perspective. And so, and then didn’t get the chance, and then now a new owner’s involved, so like now finally kind of got that gateway to be open. So it took a while to kind of get this opportunity and going but finally it went through and then and I felt like something that kind of again a sense of an identity of what Tucson is. People love the empowered woman so I’m like well maybe I can kind of branch it off but now it’s like for the first time I could actually paint something that it’s really about me in my style for the first time I actually kind of expressing myself as an artist and it’s bizarrely to go back to the traditional ways or traditional art it’s just interesting because it’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of work. It’s time consuming. But I’m so devoted to it to make it look just perfect and to really reflect

on Tucson what it is. Because I mean to know that one number another thing that I really wanted to kind of connect to is that the growing music scene that’s coming here to Tucson. And that felt like I needed to have that connected for the future of the to see how far it goes. So before we

wrap up though, tell us a little bit about what the image will look like and of course we’ll have this on the Facebook page and you’ll see it as but

it’s like a guitarista? Yeah, la guitarista. Yeah, the woman in the guitar. Yeah, or the female guitarist. And it’s very beautiful, it’s very colorful.

If you’ve seen The Empowered Woman, it has a similar style. Yeah. And it’s it’s just it seems appropriate for the side of the Rialto. Yeah and I want to make

this clear this is something that I did not lean to lean to that style I mean it’s just because it’s something that people can really connect to so I out of respect it’s just like I think it’s the right thing how it’s kind of shifting on its own and to see how Tucson is actually to be honest I think Tucson is actually shaping it the way it is so I’m following and listening to the people and valuing and see how it’s evolving. And that kind of represents what I’m used to, what I’m seeing on the Tucson scene. So this is not my major perspective. But it’s something that kind of how the community kind of made this in this way.

Absolutely. And we’re going to have to wrap up because we’ve got a large crowd here forming for Mr. Ignacio Garcia. If you want to listen to other podcasts, you can head over to our website. It’s the TucsonGallery .com. Under the Meet the Artist section there, you can find different podcasts we’ve had with many of the different artists in the gallery. And then you want to sign up for the newsletter while you’re there because then you can find out about all these meet and greet opportunities and find out when Ignacio will be here next. And as long as we have, at the gallery, we’ve worked out with Ignacio, as long as we have those Bill Walton and Jackalope prints of the mural, a lot of them are going to go tonight, but as long as we have them, they’re free. So give us a call or come on down to the gallery and we can get you one of the free versions that are available. But that’s just to, again, to support the community and thank you and look forward to the next one. But Ignacio, thank you

so much for your time.

Well, thank you, Tom. I wish I could have talked some more about it, but yeah, we got it.

We’ll get you back on.

We’ll do a second version of this. All right. Thank you. You’re welcome.

Event Photos

The Tucson Gallery is thrilled to present an insightful episode of our “Meet the Artist” podcast, featuring the multifaceted artist Steven Bye. If you missed the live event, don’t worry! We have the highlights and key moments that will inspire and captivate you.

Brewing Beginnings and Gallery Foundations

Steven Bye’s artistic journey is anything but ordinary. Starting with his unique venture of transforming a hidden section of a brewery into a flourishing art gallery, Bye’s story is a testament to creativity and community spirit. This unexpected discovery not only jumpstarted his career but also provided a platform for many young artists in Tucson, many of whom now showcase their work at the Tucson Gallery.

Teaching and Creating in Michigan

Before moving to Arizona, Bye made significant strides in the art world as a high school art and English teacher in Michigan. His contributions were immense, from building a state-of-the-art studio space to securing college credits for his students through the Art Institute of Chicago. His dynamic teaching methods, including integrating photography and ceramics, have left a lasting impact on many aspiring artists.

From the Great Lakes to the Southwest

Steven Bye’s move from Michigan to Arizona marked a new chapter in his artistic expression. Inspired by the vibrant art scene and natural beauty of the Southwest, his work transitioned from seascapes of the Great Lakes to the rich, warm tones of desert landscapes. This geographical shift is evident in his latest oil paintings, which blend his impressionistic style with the essence of Tucson.

A Tale of Two Passions: Painting and Writing

Not only is Steven Bye a talented painter, but he is also an accomplished author. His intriguing book, “Vincent in Tucson: Van Gogh’s Wild West Adventure,” explores a fascinating narrative where Vincent van Gogh survives and makes his way to the American Southwest. This creative blend of historical conjecture and imaginative storytelling offers a fresh perspective on the famous artist’s life.

In addition to this, Bye is working on a new novel, “Gray Days Over Thunder Bay,” which draws from his experiences and surroundings in Michigan. His ability to weave compelling stories, both on canvas and in print, makes him a unique and captivating artist.

Explore Steven Bye’s Work

You can explore Steven Bye’s artwork and books at the Tucson Gallery. His pieces are available for purchase both in our physical gallery and online. Make sure to visit his artist page here and browse through his collection of paintings, books, and other creations.

Stay Connected with Tucson Gallery

Don’t miss out on our upcoming events and exhibitions! Sign up for our newsletter on the events page to receive updates on new podcasts, artist meet-and-greets, and special offers. You can also listen to past episodes of “Meet the Artist” and discover more about Tucson’s vibrant art scene.

Steven Bye’s story is a powerful reminder of the boundless possibilities that arise from passion, creativity, and community. Whether you’re an art enthusiast, a budding artist, or simply looking for inspiration, his journey is sure to resonate with you.

For more information and to explore our wide selection of art and gifts, visit the Tucson Gallery website. We look forward to seeing you at our next event!

Transcript (Unedited)

Tom Heath

This episode of Meet the Artist contains language and references to alcohol addiction. If you are looking for help with an alcohol addiction, you can reach the National Rehab Hotline at 866 -210 -1303.

Tom Heath

Welcome back to Meet the Artist. It’s a feature of the Tucson Gallery in downtown Tucson. We get to hang out with all these cool artists and they come and tell us their stories and keep all these podcasts on our website. It is the TucsonGallery .com. TucsonGallery .com, you can listen to past episodes. You can also see the work that we have available from each of these artists. And most importantly, there’s a newsletter you can sign up and learn about when they’re going to be in, because all these people do amazing things. And a chance to meet them, I think, is certainly worth signing up for a newsletter. That’s all done at the Tucson Gallery 300 East Congress. We’re across the street from Hotel Congress next to the Rialto, can’t miss us, we’re right on the corner. And today’s featured artist, he’s got a multidisciplined artist. He’s got some dance repertoire, he’s got some creative designs, does some artwork, and his name is Brian Dahl. Brian, thanks for joining us today.

Brian Dahl

Thank you very much for having me.

Tom Heath

And it’s Dahl, D -A -H -L. Correct. All right. You know, when I first met you, we were just opening the gallery, we were doing a meeting, opening the proper shops, we were doing a meeting, and you have your own space here. You are in the gallery, but you also have your own space where you do lots of stuff. And you introduced yourself as the guy who dances on Congress. Correct. And I said, huh, I thought that was just a weird thing, like why would he say that? And I realized that’s your business.

Brian Dahl

Yes. I branded myself as the guy who dances on Congress. So, I think we need to delve a little bit more deeply with that. So you’re, you tend to dance inside of the clubs, not necessarily right on Congress.

Brian Dahl

Not on Congress Street, but inside the clubs. Where I started was at Hotel Congress. And it was with Hump House. I was actually talking business with him. What is Hump House? Hump House is a local DJ, one of the better ones in town. So when was this, roughly? What year is this? I would say probably about 2016, 2017, roughly.

Tom Heath

Okay, so you’re talking six, seven years ago, you’re talking to a DJ.

Brian Dahl

On the stage, he was doing his thing and I was just watching and talking business with him at the nightclub. But then I started moving and people started recognizing me and said, Hey, you’re the guy who dances at Congress. You’re like famous. People know you. So yes, people recognize me and me and Hump House realized we could easily brand this and make this a thing and make people understand you can brand yourself quite easily and have an avenue how to market yourself.

Tom Heath

Okay, because that leads into some of the work that you do because you also help, now using that sort of philosophy, you work with small businesses and others to help brand them through social media mainly, right?

Brian Dahl

Mostly social media, but I also then help them, link them with other business partners. Okay. That’s big in business is to work with other people.

Tom Heath

All right, and you design, You have some of your own designs that you’ve got out there. We’ve got a couple on our website. Your profile is listed there, but your shop has obviously so much more. But tell us a little bit about what’s going on with this artwork here. What is –

Brian Dahl

So I started out promoting positive vibes only, but realized there was a lot of pushback. So I wanted to say, it’s not just about being positive, but being positive most of the time, go through the emotions. So I’ve also come out with it’s okay not to be okay. Okay, it’s okay to be okay And it’s okay to be okay, so you have to be able to deal with all your emotions All right, and then that that gets out in the world through like the t -shirts He shares social media stickers a little bit of everything and just I keep branding it branding it branding it So people know me as that guy

Tom Heath

Okay, and the the stuff that I’ve seen it’s interesting there’s similar messaging, but then it changes formats. Like you’ve got, for example, you have a sticker that has this information on it and it’s a heart, it’s okay to be okay, it’s okay not to be okay. But then you also have the same image and you have like the right half and the left half of the heart that come together to form a complete picture.

Brian Dahl

Correct, so there’s, you want to have different, be able to market different images into one because it’s like you have two different personalities, three different personalities, but it’s okay to be those.

Tom Heath

Speaking of different personalities, we don’t have the camera for this, but your hair is different today. It’s like red and spiky. Is this for the podcast where you’re like, oh man, I need to get dressed

Brian Dahl

up? I had to get ready for the podcast and show up, but no, it’s for Halloween. I’m going to be Jimmy Neutron, and right now I’m evil Jimmy Neutron.

Tom Heath

Okay. What does that mean? You’re evil?

Brian Dahl

So in the cartoon, off the movie, there was a version of him as evil. And they’re split instead of like a Johnny Bravo, Curly Q, the older people.

Tom Heath

PPR. Gotcha. So, so you’re, you’re in transition to be Johnny Bravo. JNL. No, Jimmy, Jimmy Neutron. PPR. I’m so uncool.

Brian Dahl

JNL. But for older people, it’s, people know basically it’s Johnny Bravo to an extent.

Tom Heath

PPR. And for older, older people like me, we just nod our head and say, oh, that’s so nice.

Brian Dahl

JNL. Yeah.

Tom Heath

PPR. So your, your career, this dancing, I mean, it, it’s no longer just at Congress. You’re, So you’ve been hired by clubs and like what your role is to.

Brian Dahl

So I’m out three to four nights a week dancing for three to four hours straight to get people to dance. I’m that icebreaker. And then I keep them going.

Tom Heath

Okay. And then like, do you dance with them or do you dance like in a cage? How do you get them going?

Brian Dahl

So sometimes it’s next to the DJ on the stage. Sometimes it’s on the floor. It just depends at the bar or the nightclub. It’s different in each spot. So I’ve danced at Hotel Congress, Playground, General Ben’s, Highwire, Cobra are some of

Tom Heath

them and Zen Rock have been a few. So you get out there and then the DJ or the club pays you because they want to create some energy and you just help to add to that.

Brian Dahl

Yeah, I’m very high vibes, positive vibes. So I’m always going and really rambunctious.

Tom Heath

Okay, and then I’ve seen you’re also doing some stuff now on social media where you’re I think was at high wire Where you were questioning people in line and recording their answers and such

Brian Dahl

So yes, I’m the guy who dances on Congress asking questions in line at high wire That’s that’s gonna be need a bigger t -shirt for that and that’s from usually on Saturday nights from like 12 to 12 30 really roughly do it

Tom Heath

so before Before 2016, 17, Hump House, were you a dancer? Did you go out and just dance or?

Brian Dahl

So ironically, no, I did not dance at all, really. I just went out and had fun. Okay.

Tom Heath

And then just one night, I mean, tell me kind of what’s going through your mind.

Brian Dahl

So I worked for a few different shirt brands and companies that made me able to understand branding.

Tom Heath

Okay.

Brian Dahl

And then I worked at corporations that I understood how to make it a systems to the T.

Tom Heath

Okay. But that branding and systems to the T that…

Brian Dahl

That helps in my broader object is to consult with people.

Tom Heath

Okay. But still, I’m still thinking about this night with Hump House. Like, what led you to start kind of dancing? Was it…

Brian Dahl

So it gave me the, I would say, building my brand, people seeing me, and it’s a way of building an audience.

Tom Heath

But when you started, was that your intent? Like, hey, I could become famous for dancing? Or did you start, like, what moved you? The music, I mean.

Brian Dahl

I just moved with the music.

Tom Heath

I just went with the music. And at what point did you realize, I know people recognize you, but at what point did you realize, hey, this is a brand? Was it quickly?

Brian Dahl

No, it took probably about a year. I slowly transitioned into it. At first with stickers. I added and that was an easy thing to hand out because everyone slaps it on their hydro flask now And that I put on my sticker my the guy who dances on Congress so everyone looks at my social media

Tom Heath

Then at what point did someone say hey this guy who doesn’t at the time doesn’t dance regularly But now is dancing like he would be good for creating energy like who came up with that idea Yeah.

Brian Dahl

I would probably say Hump House. Okay. Hump House was kind of the one who I would, I only danced with Hump House for a long time, but then I branched off on my own finally.

Tom Heath

So he just called you up and said, Hey, why don’t you come out and dance and create a little, create a little energy and all.

Brian Dahl

We were friends. So we were like, Hey, I’m going to come out and talk to you anyways. Let’s, let’s build this. Let’s make this a, make it a thing because people are having fun.

Tom Heath

Okay. And now we’re, we’re six or seven years into this and at what point, there’s usually a tipping point in a brand where people understand what that means. Have we reached that tipping point? I don’t think so. Okay.

Brian Dahl

I think we’re close, but I don’t think we’re there yet. Interesting. There’s still a lot of work to do and I’m out three to four nights a week pushing, dancing, so people see me.

Tom Heath

Man, that’s just, that’s gonna be exhausting.

Brian Dahl

And then I’m at proper shops every day we’re open.

Tom Heath

Well, let’s talk, let’s switch gears. I’m sorry, I’m fascinated with the dancing because it’s such an interesting way to build a brand and and it’s just I just love that you just took it and went with it. So why I

Brian Dahl

picked dancing was I’m showing I’m trying to show everyone that you can do it out of anything it’s just you have to put the work in. So then you take this

Tom Heath

brand and the proper shops open and if you’re not familiar the Tucson Gallery sits inside of the proper shops as well it’s a collective we have somewhere around 15 different independent retailers Brian is one we also have clothing, jewelry, other artwork, metalwork, a fabulous woodshop in your booth.

Brian Dahl

What do you offer through your store? So my store is, I call it TGWDLC. It’s the guy who dances on Congress shop. And it’s all my merchandise, my logo on shirts, cups, hats, whatever I can get my hands on for merchandise wise.

Tom Heath

And so people obviously, some people know that and they come in for that, but you’re also selling to people that have no idea, like before I met you, I had no idea, but I liked the vibe.

Brian Dahl

Yeah, so the messages I push on there is positive vibes or it’s okay not to be okay, or power of positivity, because there’s too much negativity in the world. So I’m pushing these key issues that we need to make normalized.

Tom Heath

Do you, with the design, are you a graphic designer or how did you come through to create some of this stuff?

Brian Dahl

So, I had help originally with my first one, Black Broccoli and Carne Queso from Cream helped me design it. So, Black Broccoli is his own business company and then Cream Carne Seca is his own company also and it’s a screen printing company. And they helped me for the first year or so get my logo started and then I realized I needed to do it myself. So, I got the programs and started slowly learning and still learning.

Tom Heath

Yeah. So, you’re a self -taught dancer, you’re a self -taught brander, you’re a self -taught graphic designer. You like to take your own path in the world.

Brian Dahl

Yes. So, I say I went to hippie school. So, it kind of led me to… What is hippie school? So, it’s a progressive education. I went from 5 to 18 and graduated from that school pass fail. Okay. So you had to be you had to be motivated to be there.

Tom Heath

All right. So you graduated from hippie school and that has led you to kind of finding things out on your own? Yeah. Seeing the world from a different point of view than most. Okay. That seems very, from what I know of you, that seems very accurate. You do come with a really strong energy and I think that’s pretty evident to anybody that meets you. Thank you. You know,

Tom Heath

you’re out in these clubs dancing, working up a sweat, and I know, and this might be a little too personal if it is, just let me know, but I do know that you went through some challenges with alcohol and have since kind of really kind of avoided it at this point. Is that something you can talk about?

Brian Dahl

Yes. No, we can talk about it for sure because I’m very, I try to be open book. It’s that hippie schooling. Exactly. I was a party boy, I call it, and I partied hard for a long time. And I am actually now sober for eight years, eight plus years.

Tom Heath

Paul Jay So, so your sobriety came prior to dancing? Paul Jay Interesting.

Brian Dahl

James LeBell So the self -help, I think, actually reading and stuff, helped me to understand I can do whatever I want, and I don’t need alcohol to numb it.

Tom Heath

Paul Jay Wow. That’s very interesting. I mean, I knew part of that story, but I really would have assumed it happened that,

Brian Dahl

you know,

Tom Heath

the alcohol is what got you into the dancing because that seems to be what happens for a lot

Brian Dahl

of people. I mean, I did dance, but I wasn’t known as the guy who dances at Congress. I was just a crazy dancer and I was very wild and I was kicked out of a few bars. I was 86 out of a bar recently until this last year because of my old times. And that was eight plus years they had me kicked out. And understandably, I was not, I was friendly, but I was sometimes, I got too much.

Tom Heath

And I mean, it just, I know it seems odd to me that someone that is going through that, I mean, it’s probably a daily struggle, but now you put yourself right back in that environment.

Brian Dahl

Is that? To me, I’m able to not even think about it. I have, I’ve used other things like an energy drink or water to have in my hand, and I don’t even think about alcohol now. It’s not even a question, because where I’m headed is somewhere way better.

Tom Heath

And did you go through like a program? How did you?

Brian Dahl

So technically, no, at the time when I quit, I did not I when I was younger, I did have a super extreme DUI. I’m not shy to say that. And I did have no alcohol for a year. But I started drinking again after that. But again, then after that, I stopped cold turkey.

Tom Heath

Do you remember? Was it a moment? Or was it a thought?

Brian Dahl

I just was basically on my last cat life. If I did something stupid, I would have killed someone or killed myself.

Tom Heath

That’s pretty amazing to recognize that because a lot of people that I’ve known over the years that when they’re in that place, they don’t see it and it can get dark pretty quickly and I’m glad that you did.

Brian Dahl

Thank you. I do say if you need help, get help. There’s people out there who can help. There’s many different organizations, AAA, or is it AA, sorry, not AA. But AA, yeah, because they can tow your car. Yeah. If you heard it, you can get your car towed, but there’s AA if you need to use that route. Use it because it does help.

Tom Heath

Yeah. I think a lot of people would struggle with doing it the way that you did that. I mean, courage to you and kudos to you, but it’s…

Brian Dahl

It’s not… Yeah, it’s not normal, I would say. And I left the bar scene for about six months. I cut a lot of friends out for six months or so. And some friends I don’t still talk to. Some friends I do, but they’re friends I only talk to for five minutes. They’re hiking friends. They’re sports friends.

Tom Heath

I appreciate, I appreciate you sharing that. And that probably has a lot to do with some of this resolve that you’ve had to help build the brand over this time and kind of curious to see where all this, where all this takes us.

Brian Dahl

It’s going to go much farther than people believe. There’s a few projects in the works right now that I’m really excited about anything. You can share Yeah, one of them’s actually where I got just got my co -host for we’re gonna do a podcast What he’s cutting into my time people but our book club for a book club. All right All right I’ll let I will let it pass and I got hump house media to be my guy to shoot that all So tell me about this podcast. It sounds interesting. So we’re going to do a book What I can reveal right now is we’re going to read a book for two episodes. It’ll be in two episodes, we’ll talk about the whole book, me and my co -host. There’ll be more information in a week or two we can release. So how do people stay in touch with you? How do they follow you? On the guy who dances on Congress right now is my source for my Instagram.

Tom Heath

All right. Do you do Facebook or is that for?

Brian Dahl

I do have Facebook, the guy who dances on Congress. I have actually TikTok. I don’t like using TikTok, but I do have it as the guy who dances on Congress.

Tom Heath

see TikTok to me like you’re throwing out all these all these nicknames and it’s TikToks is like the cool place like you’d want to be there. Why don’t you want to be on TikTok?

Brian Dahl

I’m trying to focus in more in on Tucson TikToks more worldwide. Okay. So I’m trying to really brand myself in Arizona right now.

Tom Heath

And that’s are we an Instagram town?

Brian Dahl

It’s easier to I think social media to a specific area on Instagram or Facebook.

Tom Heath

All right. The things you would learn hanging out with Brian Dahl, if you have any questions about marketing or branding, check him out on his Instagram or Facebook page or my website, theguywhodancesoncongress .com. You can book me. I can’t believe that one wasn’t taken. That’s just surprises me.

Brian Dahl

Like, I know, right. The guy who dances on Congress.

Tom Heath

It seems like that’d be like, it’d be great if there was the guy who dances on congress12 .com. Uh, 11 other people had this idea. I think it’s just phenomenal. I love your energy. I love the fact that you just took something that just organically popped up and worked with friends, developed a business model out of it. And I think the key, and from someone from an outside perspective, is this stick -to -itiveness, the fact that this didn’t just take off and you have a brand. It was a lot of deviations and changes and subtle movements along the way. But the whole time you believed this is going to be something. And now it is something. And you’re telling me this is just the this is like the foundation. Okay, six years. Now I’ve got what I now I got

Brian Dahl

the foundation to do what I wanted. This is the very start of it. And it’s just pivot, learning to pivot a lot. Do you

Tom Heath

have a name for your podcast? Not yet. He has a name. He just doesn’t want to share it with me. I see. You can see his eyes like you know, we

Brian Dahl

there’ll be a time we release it on our Instagrams, me and my co -host, so it’ll be… See, tell me who your co -host is. Her name is Lola. Okay, so you’re

Tom Heath

gonna read books with Lola, and we’re gonna put this out in the world, and what kind of, what kind of, it’s video, you said there’s gonna be video? There’ll be, it’ll

Brian Dahl

be a YouTube station, too. Fantastic. So it’ll be a YouTube podcast, and we’re going to try also to stream it live, so you can kind of get some playback. All

Tom Heath

right, and are people gonna be encouraged to join you in this reading?

Brian Dahl

Um, there’s yes, we want people to read at their pace or listen in the on audibles fine to different audible, whatever app you use or through the library.

Tom Heath

But we will keep an eye on that and we’ll, uh, we’ll share information through, uh, through our social media channels. And if you ever want to connect with Brian, he does have a shop here inside of the proper shops. He is also one of the artists on our website, which is the Tucson gallery .com. You can check out, uh, he’s got his images up there that he has, uh, put onto other material. Uh, you can get a, you know, if you want to like a poster or canvas with his messaging on there or something cool, like a notebook, it’s all on the Tucson gallery, uh, dot com. And, um, yeah, you normally, I say you missed your chance to meet him. Cause you know, we don’t do these meet the artists all the time, but honestly, Brian is here Thursday through Sunday, uh, in his shop. So if you come into the gallery and you’re like, Hey, where’s Brian, we will, uh, we send you back there. But you’re probably going to ask for where’s the guy who dances on Congress? It’s always the guy who dances. So I appreciate

Tom Heath

your time.

Brian Dahl

Thank you very much, Tom. I appreciate you.

Tom Heath

If you or someone you know is looking for information about an alcohol addiction, you can call the National Rehab Hotline at 866 -210 -1303.

Tom Heath

Thank you for listening to Meet the Artist. This is a weekly production by the Tucson Gallery located inside of The Proper Shops at 300 East Conger Street in Tucson, Arizona. The mission of the Tucson Gallery is to support local artists by providing a space to show their art, a forum to engage with their audience, a virtual presence to connect with global patrons, an outlet to earn a fair price, and an opportunity to hone their business skills. Head over to thetucsongallery .com for more information about our live events. listen to other Meet the Artist podcasts, and check out the wide selection of art, gifts, and other items created by Tucson’s modern, thought -provoking, and forward -thinking artists.

Media

Transcript (Unedited)

Tom Heath

Welcome back to another episode of Meet the Artist. This is a product of the Tucson Gallery. We’re located at 300 East Congress Street. We’re in downtown Tucson and we’re in a busy corner here of Fifth and Congress across from the Hotel Congress. Been operating here since December and every week or a couple of weeks we get one of our artists to come in and share their story. It’s called Meet the Artist and as part of that we record a podcast. So if you want to learn more about the live events, come on over to the TucsonGallery .com website and there you’ll find a calendar of events and more importantly you’ll find a newsletter you can sign up for once a month to get updates as to all the cool stuff happening. And I will tell you as we’re recording this, we’re getting into fall. So we’re recording this in September of 23, getting into the fall, there’s all kinds of cool stuff. Have you been on that newsletter? You would have had Andrea Rodriguez join, get the information about her Meet the Artist event because she brought all kinds of goodies and food with her. You’re the first artist to cook for us. Oh, thank you. Yeah, well thank you. Welcome to the show.

Andrea Rodriguez

No, thank you Tom. I appreciate it. My name is Andrea Rodriguez and I’m super excited to be here tonight.

Tom Heath

Well, we’re excited to have you. I was excited to have you based upon your art, but then when you walked in with a plate full of food and you have like, what did you bring? You brought like apple strudel?

Andrea Rodriguez

Yeah, I’m a slave today in the kitchen completely for you guys and for anybody who will come tonight. But I make from homemade and traditional Czech apple strudel to spinach quiche to puff pastries to chlebíčky, which is kind of like a traditional Czech open sandwiches and some wine and fruit.

Tom Heath

This is why you have to sign up for these newsletters because you’re going to miss that. By the time you hear this recording, all that food’s going to be gone because I’m probably going to have most of it. It just looks fabulous. And you’re an artist as well. So that’s even more amazing. But you mentioned it’s a traditional Czech dish. So I understand from your biography that you grew up in the Czech Republic.

Andrea Rodriguez

Yeah, I was born in Komunis in 70s in Czech Republic. It used to be Czechoslovakia, so now it’s Czech Republic. And I came to the United States when I was 19 years old by myself.

Tom Heath

What prompted that trip?

Andrea Rodriguez

Well, my mom’s sister emigrated in 68 when there was some Russian thing happening and all the stuff. But they emigrated in 68. So I always know when, if the wall will come down, that we will have the opportunity to come and over here, you know, and then I fell in love with America.

Tom Heath

Wow. At age 19, you made this. I can’t even imagine. I mean, that’s.

Andrea Rodriguez

Yeah. Now when I’m looking back, because this year is actually my anniversary of 30 years. That’s bold.

Tom Heath

That’s very bold. Yeah, absolutely. So did you did you know you were coming to Tucson or how did you end up in Tucson?

Andrea Rodriguez

No, they actually used my uncle and aunt’s restaurant, Czechoslovakian restaurant on Prince Road. I used to call the Mountain View. And that’s why I ended up in Tucson, because I have relatives here.

Tom Heath

Oh, I know the Mountain View restaurant.

Andrea Rodriguez

Yeah. Now it’s a Mexican Guadalajara. Yeah. Yeah. So my uncle built it. OK.

Tom Heath

That explains your culinary background and how you brought these delicious foods in. I see.

Andrea Rodriguez

No, that’s a typically European woman.

Tom Heath

Everybody knows how to bake and cook. So you get you get here and you didn’t stay the whole time that you went to Flagstaff or Northern Arizona, right?

Andrea Rodriguez

No, actually. So I came here first and I was just a tourist. And then I have no idea what I’m getting into. So after a year and a half or a year, I went back to Czech Republic. And because I learned some English, I got an opportunity to work in the big corporation shop. I studied economics and I was like a secretary, accounting, stuff like that. It’s completely boring, completely out of element what I’m now.

Tom Heath

When I was reading the bio, which we have on our on our website, I was really fascinated because you you got into the interior design world.

Andrea Rodriguez

Yeah. So I was always fascinating with just colors in general, just anything what it has to do with color. And you can see it in my most of the painting. I’m so bold. I love colors. I think color express so much beauty and passion and all of this. And the basic change you can do in any interior design you can do is colors. You can do the most amazing changes with just changing the colors. But I get so from my original degree, what I studied in Czech, because I was not able to study design or art or any of this. I came back a couple of years later and I actually applied. So I went to U of A. So I’m actually a U of A student. I went to Pima College and I love Pima College. And then they have a program after I finished Pima College. I went to the NAU and they have a program over here. So I actually finished my interior design bachelor locally. So I didn’t have to move.

Tom Heath

Okay. I saw NAU on the bio. So I thought you got up there, but you did it here locally. Very cool. And then your business, it’s very well recognized. You have all kinds of awards and such.

Andrea Rodriguez

When I finished school, I started working for every company, local company in town, because when you actually work for somebody, you can get the experience to be on your own after. So I was working in for kitchen company, closet, cabinetry. I was selling JCPenney, custom window covering. I mean, you name it, I’ve done it all. And then finally, when I met my husband and got married 16 years ago, and he’s actually architect and had his architecture firm for almost 20 years before I even met him. Then we joined the forces and created our own interior design studio with architecture background.

Tom Heath

That’s an impressive combination right there. Did you meet through the business or did you meet separately and realize you have this?

Andrea Rodriguez

No, this is the funny thing. We met on Match .com.

Tom Heath

Well, good for Match. They know what they were doing.

Andrea Rodriguez

But you know, that time, I think it was so innocent to be dating online or actually meet somebody. At least for me, 16 years ago. I don’t know. I will probably not do it ever again at this age. Well, I hope not. You’re married.

Tom Heath

So I don’t think your husband would like you to do it again at all. Well, I think that’s fantastic that you, I mean, obviously those common interests were probably part of that match. And so you made life partners and business partners.

Andrea Rodriguez

Yeah. No, I’m really happy. We have a really nice relationship, working relationship and personal relationship.

Tom Heath

And then where did the art, like you, because as you mentioned, you do very bold work and it’s, and first of all, it’s in oil, which is unique because we don’t, surprisingly in the gallery, most of our art, I don’t think you might be the only oil painter we have in the gallery. Everybody uses acrylic.

Andrea Rodriguez

I take the niche. I take the niche to be the one and only one. Okay. But I think I always liked art. I was drawing and creating a lot of stuff. It’s my mom, as a girl, when my kids were small, I was looking for something because they always say, when you want to have a happy marriage, you should have to do something for you, for your fun. And the hubby should have some hobby for his fun. So I started taking classes at Park and Recreation just for fun.

Tom Heath

You just started just doing painting classes at the parks?

Andrea Rodriguez

Just Park and Rec. I signed up and it was basically like a Monday night. I call it Monday night mommy rock. But basically my husband was able to take care of the kids, cook dinners. So I was gone like from six to nine, nine -thirty every Monday when it was available.

Tom Heath

Wow. Wow. Yeah. That’s fantastic. So you, you kind of get it.

Andrea Rodriguez

So I don’t have a time to paint any time, any time. Well, my house, it’s a, we have a really like a old, older house from 1915 in the style in Midtown and a house is wonderful, but it doesn’t have enough natural light to paint. And I actually like to prefer to paint in the studio with everybody else because everybody else is working on different pieces and it’s inspiring. And it’s also, you walk around and, Oh, this is so cool. Oh, how you did that? So there’s always communication and close relationship and encouragement and what to change. And then the ability of somebody who can step in as a teacher and, you know, help you out and say, Hey, do this better, you know? So for this reason, I’ll prefer to actually studio setting with more people involved. Even today? Even today. Even if there is, and everybody working on different pieces and different meet with different media. It’s always better too.

Tom Heath

And do you find yourself now in the role of the teacher where you’re helping other people kind of?

Andrea Rodriguez

Well, I started doing that. So it started actually back at home because anytime I have a chance or a summer when the kids are out of school, it’s actually cheaper to take them home back to Europe to have the same experiments, you know, growing back like me, like in Czech in the village where actually my father is from the house is like 300 years old. And because it’s such a rural village, there’s nothing to do over there. I start painting with the neighbors and teaching them how to do it. And the most rewarding was after a couple of hours, they were taking their painting home and they have like two days with their husband like, where did we put this mom? This is great. Look at what you did. So I totally like elevated the moments because mostly the painting was for moments in the village. So most of the women who never painted ever in their life, they start like feeling, oh, I’m good at something else besides cooking and taking care of family.

Tom Heath

And they can express, like you said, they can they can through the colors or through their their images.

Andrea Rodriguez

So now anytime I’m going back, I already have two, three classes, book. So it’s the word is spread. It’s always fun.

Tom Heath

You’re you’ve gone from Parks and Rec to international, let me get you very fancy. Do you teach here in Tucson?

Andrea Rodriguez

Yeah, I did a couple of the classes for a friend who asked me to do like a for a meet and greet with like appreciation clients. So I think the last large one was like 24 people in the El Charro, which was so wonderful because they even cook all the appetizer and servette on the wooden pallet. Oh, wow. Yeah, it was gorgeous. So really good food, good atmosphere. El Charro, it’s a nice place to actually have.

Tom Heath

I’m getting this theme here, the food and the art. You have to make the food and wine. You got to bring it all together. Let me go back to a question earlier about oil. Why? Why are not more artists using it? Is it more challenging to work with or or why did you choose to work with it?

Andrea Rodriguez

So I start just with regular pencil, then I move to watercolors. It was too bland for me. The color didn’t pop up. And then I moved to acrylic. It gets dry so quickly and you cannot blend. And then I discover oil because Mariano’s dad had used to paint in his garage with oil and he when he passed away, he grabbed he got me the sets with the old and I will like it just just to try it. So I start trying it and start buying oil and it’s so nice and wonderful because the colors are really like the most boldest one. But also the blend is so beautiful and you can come back to the painting because I’m coming back every week. You can still spread it and make it wonderful and you can use the same oil if you cover them really good. So oil oil is nice. It’s take time to dry. Maybe that’s a good time. Actually, I’m painting once a week. I wish I paint more and I wish I had more time and maybe I will. Who knows from now on? Yeah, oil is just a beautiful medium. It’s it’s such a softness.

Tom Heath

And we realized we didn’t have an oil painter and thought we’ve got to get you. So we’re like we we invited you in. And the first few pieces that came in were sort of they were flowers. They were nature. And so I thought that’s kind of what you focused on. And then I’m seeing this work that you brought in for the event tonight. And you’ve got just just a whole array of subjects. You don’t have any limitations.

Andrea Rodriguez

No, and it has to catch whatever I paint. It has to be something that is speak to me. So the blooming of Puntia that Tony Fowler in love is and actually pick me up from the crowd. It was I just I usually I stop and take picture of anything and maybe when I have a good camera, but it’s always on my phone. So I have over 7000 photos on my phone just now. But I just stop in the neighborhood and I saw this beautiful it was I have to stop get from the car and get a couple of angles just to see it, how beautiful the sun is hitting at that. So it’s so yeah, it has to speak to me.

Tom Heath

But there are things that I mean, we’ve got you’ve got one that was very vibrant, Trace Latinas, like it was sort of a day of the dead feel to it.

Andrea Rodriguez

The single Katrina or the three girls. So this is the story behind this. I have a girlfriend in interior design wards and they always they used to have a studio right here on the 6th Street before the widening the road. They always dress up for the day of the day of the day and they even get photographer and makeup professional and everything. So I saw this picture and it catch my eyes and I say, oh, my God, I have to paint this. I have to paint this. So it’s actually three living girlfriend, still girlfriends up to today. And then the painting was donated to raising money for ASID for for Interior Design Society.

Tom Heath

Well, it’s absolutely stunning. All of your work, the colors, there’s just no question that color is your friend and you love to just be bold with it. I think it’s great. And if you if you’re listening and you want to check out any of the work, we’ve got some of what she has available on our website, the Tucson Gallery dot com. But you’ve also got a whole collection of work that we don’t carry. Your your nudes are very popular.

Andrea Rodriguez

They are. And usually they are always as soon as I post it on Facebook friends, usually they are gone. So maybe I have one nude pictures back as an original, but everything else is sold out. But Tony told me, no, no, no, we keep it clean. And I say, look, you cannot even recognize that it’s nude. It’s just bold colors, abstracts, all this. But so but you can still check it out on my website. This nude.

Tom Heath

So what is your website and your Instagram?

Andrea Rodriguez

And how people so simple. It’s WWW. My name, Andrea Rodriguez Gallery dot com.

Tom Heath

Andrea Rodriguez Gallery dot com. And what about Facebook, Instagram? Is it the same? Same.

Andrea Rodriguez

OK, yeah, I am. I went so professional. You guys make me to be so professional. This was this used to be my hobby. But now it’s like it seems taking over everything. But, you know, I appreciate it because on the other side, push me to do something that I never thought I will do now, one week before my 50th birthday.

Tom Heath

Well, I’m excited for tonight. I’m sorry if you’re listening to this and you missed it because it’s going to be a good time. And again, if you want to learn more about these events, head over to our website to some gallery dot com. Sign up for the newsletter once a month. You’ll get a list of all the events that are happening, not just the artist events. We do have concerts. There are other things that happen. And if you haven’t been down here, we’re inside of the proper shops, which is a collective of 15 different independently owned businesses. We have a bar. You can sip shop. But we’re on the Tucson Gallery dot com. Check out all the work there from from Andrea and all of our other artists.

Andrea Rodriguez

And and definitely you have to stop by. This is such a cool place. This is not only gallery. It’s much behind anybody. Imagine, you know, when you usually go to gallery, there’s a few pieces. And from only certain artists that you have to appreciate it. No, here this is like this is like a market of beautiful stuff, gorgeous from ceramic to acrylic, to canvases, to accessories, to closing line, to jewelry. I mean, you name it, you over here is everything.

Tom Heath

Well, you don’t have to take my word for it. Andrea Rodriguez is telling you, come on down and check out the proper shops and maybe just maybe we’ll have a few of your originals still left after tonight for people to buy. I hope so.

Andrea Rodriguez

Thanks. And if not, I can always pay more.

Tom Heath

Hey, thanks for joining us.

Andrea Rodriguez

I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. I appreciate it, too. Thank you, everybody.

Tom Heath

Thank you for listening to Meet the Artist. This is a weekly production by the Tucson Gallery located inside of the proper shops at 300 East Congress Street in Tucson, Arizona. The mission of the Tucson Gallery is to support local artists by providing a space to show their art, a forum to engage with their audience, a virtual presence to connect with global patrons, an outlet to earn a fair price and an opportunity to hone their business skills. Head over to TheTucsonGallery .com for more information about our live events. Listen to other Meet the Artist podcasts and check out the wide selection of art, gifts and other items created by Tucson’s modern, thought -provoking and forward -thinking artists.

Media

Transcript (Unedited)

Tom Heath

Welcome back to another fabulous episode of Meet the Artist, a product of the Tucson Gallery. We’re located at 300 East Congress. We’re in downtown Tucson across from Hotel Congress, next to the Rialto Theater and in the center of all this amazing activity. And we have this beautiful gallery with 30 different local artists all represented. Sometimes we’re fortunate enough that they will come in and say hello to us and meet their adoring fans. And we have Lauri Kay in today and we’re going to chat with her. If you want to hear this podcast or any others, you can head over to our website. It’s Life Along… That’s not it. It’s the Tucson Gallery, tucsongallery .com. And you’ll find different podcasts and there’s also a really nice calendar and a newsletter you can sign up for to get notification of all these cool events. By the time you hear this podcast, you will miss the opportunity to hang out with Lauri Kaye. And that’s so sad. Lauri, welcome to Meet the Artist.

Lauri Kaye

Thanks. Thanks for having me.

Tom Heath

So I understand that we’re a little bit out of our comfort zone today.

Lauri Kaye

Absolutely. I purposefully did artwork so I would never have to be on a mic and do any public speaking. Perfect. Thanks a lot.

Tom Heath

That’s our job here is to make sure that we want to make you feel uncomfortable. That’s our goal.

Lauri Kaye

Perfect.

Tom Heath

All right. So let’s go back to the beginning. You got into art so that you wouldn’t have to be on a mic, but when did you get into art?

Lauri Kaye

I think I was born ready and willing and excited to do artwork. I’ve been drawing all of my life, whether it’s crowns or chalk, pencils. So it’s just something that’s been pretty innate and something I learned at an early age that I could hustle to earn a couple extra bucks.

Tom Heath

So you were selling your art as a kid?

Lauri Kaye

I was actually in elementary school. If I wanted to stand in that lunch line where you could get an ice cream sandwich for 25 cents or chocolate milk for eight cents, you actually had to have the money for it. So my parents pretty much said, if you want something, you got to earn the money for it. So I would paint on rocks, I would sell fuzzy pencils, and I had all sorts of schemes going on with my artwork.

Tom Heath

How old were you at this point?

Lauri Kaye

I was probably about eight.

Tom Heath

Oh my gosh, that’s incredible. That’s absolutely incredible. So you’re in line, you’re like, I want some chocolate milk and an ice cream bar. So I’m going to sell a fuzzy rock, a painted rock and a fuzzy pencil.

Lauri Kaye

And it worked. So I would make a batch at home, bring them to school, sell them to all of my friends and earn enough money to get that ice cream sandwich. So it was pretty sweet. And I think the endorphin rush of selling something and earning money for something I did was pretty wild.

Tom Heath

Where did you grow up? Was it here in Tucson?

Lauri Kaye

In Pennsylvania.

Tom Heath

Oh, Pennsylvania. What part? It’s a big state.

Lauri Kaye

So the town is called Yardley and it’s a suburb of Philadelphia.

Tom Heath

All right. So my dad is from the suburb of Pittsburgh, so we’re on the other end of the state from you there. Another country. So are you then an Eagles fan? Is that a thing?

Lauri Kaye

Yep. Yep. Eagles, 76ers. Went to tons of basketball games with my brother.

Tom Heath

Okay. So if you’re in the sports mecca, the Philly cheesesteak mecca, you’re making a living selling fuzzy rocks. What brought you out to Arizona?

Lauri Kaye

Well, I eventually moved on to selling t -shirts as a teenager and still back in Philly, still back in Philly and was contemplating, you know, a life and career and ended up going to art school, becoming a graphic designer. So I was in New York city for about 10 years going to school and working afterwards. So that’s where I began my professional art career.

Tom Heath

You went to art school in New York city? I did. That’s pretty like heavy duty stuff, right? I mean, you gotta be pretty good to do that.

Lauri Kaye

It was just awesome. I felt like I just found my groove. I was not big on high school, so to get into college and just love being with the people that were in my classes, I felt like I definitely found my tribe.

Tom Heath

Did the demand for fuzzy pencils and rocks dip at the art school or were you still selling those?

Lauri Kaye

You know, yeah, that was a thing of the past.

Tom Heath

So I had to reinvent yourself. That’s why you moved into t -shirts.

Lauri Kaye

Yeah. Yeah. When I was 16. So I could up the game a little bit.

Tom Heath

So then you go and you get a degree in like graphic design?

Lauri Kaye

Yeah, but it was a bachelor in fine arts and my first gig was at Rolling Stone. My one of my teachers, the magazine, oh my gosh, I didn’t know we had rockstar royalty

Tom Heath

with us today.

Lauri Kaye

You know, I was like very, very, very, very low woman on the totem pole. My teacher was the art director, Fred Woodward, and he was the most amazing teacher and every year he would ask a student to work at the magazine. So I was lucky enough to it was pretty wild. I knew very little about the magazine and but it was a pretty exciting place to be.

Tom Heath

So this is all making sense to me. You grew up in Philadelphia, you go to art school in New York City, you get a gig with with Rolling Stone and the natural progression then leads me to Tucson.

Lauri Kaye

Oh, yeah, for sure. I love Tucson. I love this place.

Tom Heath

How did you I mean, how did you end up here?

Lauri Kaye

Well, like a lot of people kind of like an early midlife crisis and also as much as I love New York City and I try to get back every year just to eat and people watch and draw. I knew that that kind of hustle and quality of life of just always being on the go was was not my long term plan. And I’ve always been drawn to the desert. I was in Israel quite a few times and just loved like the heat and desert life. So when I first visited Tucson, I felt like this was a place I could really see myself

Tom Heath

long term. So was it was it accidental that you came to Tucson to visit or were you here?

Lauri Kaye

Nothing’s really accidental, but it’s a long story. We can we can talk about that on the next podcast.

Tom Heath

Okay, we’ll have we’ll have a part two. This is exciting. This is the first teaser podcast that we have. So talk a little bit about your art is is it you you said you’ve been like drawing your whole life. So is what you do now mostly drawing?

Lauri Kaye

It’s it is mostly drawing.

Lauri Kaye

I’ve I had a restaurant here for about 13 years. So there was a blip in my life where I wasn’t doing artwork. So after that, in 2013, I was trying to think of what I was going to do. And I started drawing again and was really enjoying it and trying to kind of unlearn a lot of the rules that I learned in art school and to draw freely, not worry about mistakes and erasing. So I kind of intentionally draw with black markers that I can erase and just let things fly. So most of my pieces, well, they all start with line drawings, hand drawings. And then I incorporate photography and digital color. So I am using the computer once the drawing is done to add color and to add a little bit of photography.

Tom Heath

So everything we have in the gallery, it’s I think everything it’s either a print or it’s on metal and it looks like it was drawn and then transferred to a to a metal canvas.

Lauri Kaye

Yeah. So when I first got into this, I was just doing black and white and everybody was saying you got to add some color, you know, you just got to take it a little further. But I really didn’t like the idea of having to frame anything. So I was playing around with different materials and reproductions downtown on Sixth Avenue. They were huge, showing me some options. And when I found the metal, I was so excited because I wouldn’t have to pay money for a frame and it looked great on its own. And that’s the whole framing I thought was cost prohibitive. It would have been really hard for me to ever get started if I had to frame this. So and also I love murals. I love outdoor art. So the idea of printing on metal, just even though I’m mostly drawing, I kind of feel like I’m bringing the outdoors inside by using that that kind of material and it’s all outdoor signage material.

Tom Heath

Yeah. So you’re bringing the outside in and the inside out. Yeah, exactly. That’s that’s what artists do. They connect the worlds. Yeah. And you’re all of your pieces are in great detail and some of them are like you’ll stare at them for hours and just keep seeing more shapes or more objects sort of appear. Is that how do you do you just keep drawing until you feel like you’re done or do you have an idea of what the end is going to look like?

Lauri Kaye

No, I actually never know what the end is going to look like. And I for a lot of the pieces, I’ll do research on the subject material. And so I like to draw in the information into the artwork. So there’s a lot of text or icons or little images within the artwork. And that’s, you know, one, it adds texture to the piece. And it also helps me to remember what I learned about that particular subject. So and I also I know that I overdo it and they’re more like maximalist pieces. And then our teacher would probably say, that’s not OK. You went too far. But I don’t know. I’m an adult now, so I can do what I want.

Tom Heath

I can do that. And and I can tell you, the people that come in the gallery have never said she’s gone too far. They’ve been completely impressed with how far you’ve gone, but no one has felt that you’ve gone too far. That’s exciting because you’re a lot of different styles. It’s not just like you see something and instinctively you probably know it’s Laurie Kaye. But the subject matter can be different. You know, some are more like abstract than others. Some are seem a little bit more realistic and just it’s very interesting to me. But your style is is very clear.

Lauri Kaye

So, yeah, well, I love looking for different subject material here in Tucson and it is just endless. So, you know, my mission right now is to uncover all the people, places and events that make Tucson extraordinary. And so far I’ve done about 70, 75. And there’s you know, that’s just the tip of the iceberg, as you know.

Tom Heath

So and the one we’re unveiling tonight, had you gone to the website and signed up for the newsletter and gotten the advance notice, could have joined us. But since you’re hearing the podcast, you’ve you’ve missed this opportunity for the unveiling of your new piece on Tucson Icon that’s focused on the Sonoran hot dog.

Lauri Kaye

Yes. And I’m very excited about this very deep piece of art. So I’ve been wanting to do a piece on Sonoran hot dogs for so long. I’ve got a list that I’ve had for years and they take me so long to get to. So I was so happy to finally have the time to do it. And I love El Guero Canelo hot dogs. So I went over and asked if they could make me the most beautiful Sonoran hot dog, which they did. It’s I mean, they’re artists, they’re food artists over there. And I took a photograph so I could go home and use that as my inspiration. And I was working on it for, I don’t know, 10, 20 hours. And then finally I saw this like kaleidoscope of hot dogs turning into a barrel cactus. And so that’s what it is.

Tom Heath

That’s the amazing thing to me is how you get from from I mean, I’ve seen Sonoran hot dogs. I don’t they don’t last very long for me to take a picture of them because I eat them too quickly. But then to take it and create what you’ve done and it works, it’s so it looks so intentional. Like this is exactly what you laid out and wanted to do. And to know that you sort of progressed to that point is really fascinating to me.

Lauri Kaye

Yeah, I never know what I’m going to get. And so it keeps things exciting.

Tom Heath

And you’re sitting there like, oh, how about cool. A barrel cactus looks like a top of a barrel cactus. Well, there we go.

Lauri Kaye

Yeah. What the hell were you thinking?

Tom Heath

Well, whatever it was, it looks it looks fabulous. And these are the types of pieces you can head over to the Tucson Gallery’s website. See a lot of Lauri’s artwork. We have things for reproduction. One thing I’d always like to point out is the the we offer things on metal through our website, but it’s a different type of metal. Ours is really designed for indoor display. And when you print yours that you have in the gallery on metal, that’s a much heavier duty kind of printing. That’s that’s really good for outdoor use as well.

Lauri Kaye

Right. It’s a totally different process, different material. And they’re they’re signed. So, you know, they’re not really comparative, like apples to apples.

Tom Heath

Do you do limited or or?

Lauri Kaye

I do. All of the pieces do come in limited editions out of twenty five. And I add personalized information. So somebody will say, hey, I really want this twisted beauty piece, but I want the limited edition. And so I’ll ask them to give me some personal information. Maybe it’s a birthday, a quote, a little photograph, and I incorporate that into the artwork and then they get a certificate. And yeah, I only do that for up to twenty five for each piece.

Tom Heath

That’s fantastic. But that’s not it. But you have unlimited of some versions.

Lauri Kaye

All of the versions are unlimited. OK. And I wanted to keep things very affordable and accessible. So, you know, for one hundred and twenty five bucks, you can get a piece of art.

Tom Heath

Yeah, it’s really the price points are quite amazing as well as as the artwork. And you said you go back to New York like once a year in your. Yes. Is that a work trip? He said you like to draw the people.

Lauri Kaye

Absolutely. It’s very hectic. I go with all my pens and paper and I find all these, I don’t know, places to sit and have coffee and eat pizza. And I just draw to my heart’s content.

Tom Heath

Do you find the drawing is different because the surroundings are different? I mean, that’s the subject matter, but just the way you go about the process.

Lauri Kaye

No, no. The process is always the same. I just, you know, I’m just so inspired really wherever I am. So I don’t need to go out of my city of Tucson to be inspired.

Tom Heath

But nice. And then the other thing you mentioned, we kind of glossed over is you’ve got a list, you said, of like you’ve already done 70 of these items, but you said the Sonoran hot dog was so far down the list. You couldn’t wait. You’re so excited to get to it. Like how many more things are on this list?

Lauri Kaye

Well, the list is always growing, but I really want to do the Biosphere. There’s something on Gates Pass that a friend told me about. It’s like a stone, a stone building, I forget the name, but I’ve got quite a few on this list. I just finished the Saguaro Henge, which was a place that I had never heard of that exists here in Tucson.

Tom Heath

So, yeah, you’re telling me about that Saguaro Henge, I thought, oh, that’s cute. And then you showed me the picture. There’s actually a Saguaro Henge here in Tucson.

Lauri Kaye

Yes. And everybody should know about it. It’s such a cool place. Well, where is it? It’s on the west side off of, I think it’s off of La Cholla around Tangerine. And it’s called Prickly Pear Park.

Tom Heath

Prickly Pear Park. Yes. That’s just fun to say. Yes. That’s just fun to say.

Lauri Kaye

It’s a really cool park. Lots of great cacti.

Tom Heath

And I like with like when you do your displays here in the gallery, there’s you sometimes will put a picture of the original subject matter, which I think is fun. Yes. I try to do that more often. Oh, and your other places. I mean, you’re everywhere besides the gallery. You’re at the La Encantada, you’re part of the Sagu group up there.

Lauri Kaye

And at the Botanical Gardens, why I love where I live, it’s Oro Valley. And just who will ever have me? It’s I pound a lot of pavement, so it’s it’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of nose. And until you get it, yes.

Tom Heath

So you’ve got it dialed in. I think this started when you were seven years old. Painting rocks. But you’ve got you’ve got the system dialed in. Do you as part of Sagu, do you do or just in general, do you work with other artists to kind of help them get going? Or do you provide any mentoring or teaching or are you just too busy for all of that?

Lauri Kaye

I I feel like I’m always open for questions and people do ask me a lot of questions. And I love to tell people where I get materials, where I do my printing. And, you know, a lot of people, artists are very they don’t like to share information. They’re very, like, proprietary. And I’m totally not. And a lot of the artists at Sagu and that I’ve met are also very open and willing and sharing their ideas and information.

Tom Heath

And where can people find more? Because I know you are a prolific social media poster. Oh, that’s that’s. So that was a joke. That was sarcastic.

Lauri Kaye

It’s like, why are you talking to?

Tom Heath

Well, but people do you have a website? I mean, where can people check you out besides the gallery?

Lauri Kaye

OK, so create for the people dot com all spelled out. Oh, I love that. People dot com.

Tom Heath

That’s your brand.

Lauri Kaye

That’s the brand. And the point was to always make the art affordable. And when I do shows and exhibits, always to raise money for local charities.

Tom Heath

And notice that part of the unveiling tonight, you bring in Sonoran hot dogs and you’re collecting money for the Tucson Food Project.

Lauri Kaye

Yes, the Tucson Family Food Project. They support kids in school who don’t have access to food and who are hungry. They have meal plans that they pay for. So that’s what tonight’s contributions are going towards.

Tom Heath

It’s been it’s been a few years since you were purchasing chocolate milk and ice cream bars. But you’re still raising money for school lunches. I think that’s fabulous.

Lauri Kaye

Oh, didn’t think about that. I love that. Yeah. Wow. Something’s never changed.

Tom Heath

Create for the people at Lauri Kaye. Check her out on our website as well. The Tucson Gallery dot com. You can order prints in different formats as well. Not only on the metal, but we do things have things on canvas in case you want something with that pesky frame around it. And there’s also some merchandise that we’ve created. Just got into blankets, by the way. So some of these things on a blanket, I think are really, really kind of fun to see.

Lauri Kaye

And it’s getting cold.

Tom Heath

And it is getting cold as we are recording this. It’s barely 100 degrees outside. So it’s it’s getting chilly. To meet the artist, it’s the Tucson Gallery, 300 East Congress Street, downtown Tucson. Come by. We’re open Thursday through Thursday through Sundays. And check out the website for all kinds of special events. And just make an evening of it. Come down, grab some dinner, stop by. We do have a bar inside the galleries and grab a drink and walk around and enjoy this beautiful art from all these Tucson fabulous talented people. So, Lauri, thanks so much for your time.

Lauri Kaye

Oh, thank you. What a pleasure.

Tom Heath

Thank you

Tom Heath

for listening to Meet the Artist. This is a weekly production by the Tucson Gallery, located inside of the proper shops at 300 East Congress Street in Tucson, Arizona. The mission of the Tucson Gallery is to support local artists by providing a space to show their art. A forum to engage with their audience, a virtual presence to connect with global patrons, an outlet to earn a fair price and an opportunity to hone their business skills. Head over to the TucsonGallery .com for more information about our live events. Listen to other Meet the Artist podcasts and check out the wide selection of art, gifts and other items created by Tucson’s modern, thought provoking and forward thinking artists.