Luke Anderson - Wyoming, New Themes in Western Art and the "Chili Test"

Hello out there, George Irwin here, also known on Instagram as Western Gallery. I'd like to welcome you to Horizons, a series of talks with people who make, collect, and present artworks that represent the American West. Mostly painting-focused for now, we'll zero in on the people involved with works depicting the Western landscape, cowboys, Native Americans, and wildlife. So saddle up and join me as I venture west. My guest today is Luke Anderson, who, lucky for me, has a couple paintings in my little private collection. For those of you who don't know Luke's work and want some visuals for context, check him out on Instagram at Luke Anderson Paintings or online at LukeAndersonFineArt.com. Luke resides in Wyoming, where he was born and raised. Discovering a knack for his artistic abilities early on, he's fortunate to have settled into his gift while still quite young. In his mid-20s, Luke is one of the young guns in the Western art world with a bright future ahead. Join us as we discuss how he got started, his chili test, and what's next in his career. Here's our conversation.

How did you get into painting?

I was always into art as a kid. It was always drawing, you know. My first exposure to oil painting was my mom signed my brother and I up for I don't know if you ever did one of these or heard about it, but there was this like Bob Ross licensed art class program. Oh wow. Around the country there were these instructors who were like licensed by the Bob Ross brand or whatever, and they would go and teach classes in the community about how to like paint in the Bob Ross style.

That's cool.

So I did a couple of those classes and enjoyed those. This is when I was in like elementary school probably. And then didn't really do any painting for a while, just like art class in school. But then once I got into high school, I got back into art a little more seriously. And I had this one particular art teacher who was extra encouraging to like go sort of beyond what we were doing in class. But then one of my teachers gave me like some linseed oil to go play around with. And so, yeah, I got into really into painting in high school and then pursued the oils beyond acrylic and tempera and watercolor and stuff like that. So— I didn't get super serious about it until like 2015, 2016 when I was graduating college.

Did you study art in college?

I took 2 semesters of it in the art program and then it wasn't for me at that time. The combination of factors of the instructors and the way the program was structured, art just didn't really— it served a different purpose for me then than it does now. It was more of an emotional escape for me back then. And so I didn't like being constantly critiqued on it, I suppose.

That makes sense.

Yeah. So it was just too personal of a thing at that point. And so I got out of the art program. I just did the basic intro core classes. And then I got my degree in American Studies and Environment and Natural Resources. Oh, wow.

Well, that seems to lend itself pretty well to the Western style, right?

Right, I do consider I still got an arts education. It was just sort of a different unconventional approach to it.

Sure.

So yeah, I got— once I was— I had figured out some other stuff in my social life and, you know, got some things in order, I revisited. I took like a year or two off from where I didn't do any art at all in that span, but then I got back into it. I got a lot of encouragement from a lot of important people in my life and And it's just sort of snowballed from there, I guess.

And it seems like, you know, having only really looked at most of your work online, I do own one of your paintings.

Thank you.

Of course. It's over here. I'll actually—

I'll show you.

Nice.

Quick. It's in the kids' corner.

Looks great.

Yeah.

It's appropriate.

Yeah. It's a fun painting. The painting is called Props, by the way, for anybody listening that wants to look it up. I'll put a picture of it in show notes. Oh, anyway, I was saying like I can tell like a real progression over the past few years for you and it's really— your work is really starting to come into its own, I feel like.

Thanks, that's the struggle of all and a burden of all artists is to try and come up with that voice and that style of their own. It's been interesting to approach it the way I have without doing the traditional 4 years in our program or doing an MFA or some sort of other formal training like that.

Right.

I've had to learn a lot of things the hard way probably. And just influences from across the board, just trying to figure out when I need to like find something that works and stick with it, or if I should just always be going 100 miles an hour with 100 different projects.

Right.

I don't think I've worked that out yet, but it's been good to try a lot of different things.

Sure.

Not all of them work out and that's fine.

Yeah, that's cool. It's interesting to hear you kind of explain that a little bit, 'cause, you know, I see things where you've posted on Instagram where you're talking about reworking a painting or taking one that you didn't like and cropping it into something you do or trying something completely different. Like the other, the one you did, I guess recently where you made it sort of this horse going through this big black negative space and coming out the other side, which is just pretty cool. But—

Thanks.

You know, it's interesting to kind of see the exploration happening as well as just seeing like the polished finished series, you know?

I mean, I think for a long time I had a perception, I think maybe other artists have this too, that like you have a conception of a painting from the very beginning. Like, you know what it's going to look like in the end, you know how your process is going to achieve that result. But I think that I'm definitely realizing that there's a lot of in-between stuff that happens where you can't— like, you obviously will never know what your finished piece is actually going to look like. So I try to embrace that, and if things don't work out overall but there's certain elements that I really do like, I try not to like scrap it entirely and just take the pieces that work and just do what I can to emphasize those. So like that one you just mentioned, But there were parts of that piece that I really liked and the rest was not so great. So yeah, just like trying to work with some negative space, do really contemporary stuff.

Yeah, that— take the parts of it that you like and leave the parts that don't really work behind seems like a good kind of metaphor for life, right?

Right, exactly. You take, yeah, you take what you can get and yeah, just try and keep it positive too. And there's definitely things that I've I've just totally painted over or torn off. But other times, yeah, I'll just, I'll take it off the stretcher bars and crop it to another aspect ratio and then like, boom, new painting.

Yeah, I mean, and that's, I think that's something that, I think the first time I read about you doing that or something, I was like, huh, what does that mean? But, you know, like, if I think about it, that's a really totally valid part of a painting process, right? It's something that you're making this decision about visually doing and then physically doing it, which is kind of the dictionary definition of art, right?

Right.

Yeah, it's cool.

I've sort of— I've developed this, um, this test for my paintings that I've dubbed the Chili Test. So like, you know, when you make a good pot of chili, it simmers for several hours and then like it gets even better if you have leftovers and they stay in the fridge for like a week. It just flavors just keep melding, getting better and better. So when I finish a piece, if I let it sit for like 3 weeks or so I have this weird thing in my brain where if it seems to me like the colors and the elements are still continually doing new things when I look at them and getting better as it dries and such, then it'll pass the Chili Test and it'll be a finished painting that I can varnish and send out to the world. But if not, then I have to reconsider. Either it didn't work out at all or there's pieces of the work that I can alter. So that's my— that's how I assess if I have a good painting or not.

Man, that's a good— that seems like a good trick.

I also really like chili, so—

Do you do like a celebratory batch of chili for each painting when you think you're done?

That's a good— I do not, but I will probably start doing that now, especially because it's fall and it's getting cold here.

So I was thinking that could really help you with your painting evaluation, you know. You're like, well, the chili is really good now, how's the painting?

Right, yeah. And I do, on a less like, I don't know, goofy note, I do, I have like a 150-page Word document where I do a full critique of every painting I do, like a self-critique where I do a more intense analysis and pull out the things that work, the things that could have been improved, and then do an overall assessment of the successfulness of the piece. So wow, that's wild.

That's an interesting counter to your being open with kind of how a painting takes shape approach, you know, versus like really zeroing in on what you think it's gonna be. And then on the other side, you've got like a really detailed, meticulous aspect of it where you're critiquing.

And I think it's a good check and balance on that process because when I start something, I still have a goal or an idea in mind for what I think it's gonna be. And so doing that sort of critique allows me to reflect on what I did in the process to achieve that goal or like how well I actually did to achieve that goal, which I think illuminates a lot of things about my own process. Process and what I think. If I start a piece, I have something in mind of what I think will make it good. And then at the end, I can see if what I did actually did make it good. So I think it's just a good reflection on that. And then after that critique, I can just move on and adjust if I want to, alter, that sort of thing, and then do it again. So—

Well, that seems like, you know, to talk about not doing the traditional art school kind of thing or studying art in college, you know, if you're going to be a self-taught artist, That seems like a very detailed way to do it.

Yeah, that's really—

that's cool.

It's like the trope. I feel like that's a trope of art school and art programs. You just like get hammered and hammered super hard with super intense critiques.

Oh, definitely.

And criticism and stuff. So I don't know if that's just me trying to create that environment for myself in sort of a subconscious way, but it is always, always with the goal of improving.

Sure.

Getting better with each piece, so.

Well, in theory, that's the goal of critiques in any case, right?

Right.

Hey, is that— got a cat there or a dog?

That's my dog. This is Scrappy.

Hey Scrappy, I've seen your picture before.

Yeah, he's also featured heavily on my Instagram.

So awesome.

He was just sleeping in the sun and now he's stretching out.

That's cool. You can go over there. And you also, by the way, congratulations, you just got engaged not long ago.

Uh-huh. Yeah, thanks.

Yeah, that's cool.

Life's exciting.

Life is happening.

Yeah, yeah, it is.

Have you always been out in Wyoming or did you— did something take you out there?

No, I am from Cheyenne, from the capital, and then I came over to Laramie for school. Gotcha. So I have been here my whole life. I do like it a lot. It's windy and cold, but when you're here your whole life, you kind of get used to it. So, sure. I think Wyoming has been an interesting place to be in considering the greater, like, Western art genre because the Southwest sort of dominates or originated sort of what we know as contemporary Western art. But Wyoming sort of sits— people know the Tetons and Yellowstone, but the rest of Wyoming is this sort of odd, like, high, desolate plateau, grassland sort of place that people don't really know a lot about. And I don't think it exists as much in the minds of the Western zeitgeist as much as Utah or Arizona, you know, as much.

So beyond that, there's not very many people there.

Yeah, yeah.

And there's, you know, there's a lot of it that's pretty flat, right?

Yeah, it's, um, there's a lot of valleys and basins in between sort of like mid-sized mountain ranges. Yeah, the eastern half of the state is like sort of more prairie. It's a little more rolling hills. There's a big desert in the middle of it, and then, you know, we have 13,000-foot mountain peaks. So it's very, very diverse in its landscapes. I think that surprises a lot of people who come and visit it for the first time. And open spaces are what I think people really, really fall for in Wyoming, is just the vastness of the sky.

Oh yeah.

And the horizons.

Isn't Wyoming like the first or second in the nation as far as like low population density? Do you know anything about that?

Um, I guess one of the first— I know it's the smallest population. I don't know about density. I wonder, I would assume that Alaska probably has that.

That would make sense.

Yeah, that crown, but Wyoming might be second.

Yeah, that's got to give it a cool feel.

Yeah, that's partly why I paint a lot of pronghorn is because that's sort of Wyoming's signature animal. Okay, for people who live here, they're just, they're as about as ubiquitous as cattle.

So cool. Let's switch back to, I guess, switching back to like kind of your work. You say you've been doing it kind of seriously for the past couple years or 3 years or so, and I've noticed you've been participating in some shows. You've got your art out in like a couple of local gallery kind of situations. And where do you see yourself as far as like, do you see like an art career for yourself? What's next for you?

Yeah, that's, I mean, that's definitely the, that's the long-term goal. That's the dream. At least part-time if I could, you know, sustain that part-time. So yeah, definitely. I— some people know what they wanted to do for— with their life since they were 10, right? Like, I wasn't really one of those people. And as I've gone through college and then afterwards, I think it's just become super clear that there's not a lot that I could do for work that would make me happy as much as painting does. I think I just have to trust my gut and my instincts with that and take it as far as I can.

Cool.

I started college as a psychology major. Yeah. I had no idea what I wanted to do.

Let me think about a different way to ask this. And I guess, you know, you answered my question more or less, but like, let's go a little bit more specific. All right, what group show, real or imaginary, would you like to participate in?

There's a few I applied to this year that I got rejected from, which is part of the process. I've heard the Mountain Oyster Show in Tucson is a good one to get into. The Cheyenne Old West Museum They do 2 big shows a year, one which I've been a part of, but their western art show during Frontier Days is their main one, which I think is a big one. The Coors Western Art Show in Denver is probably one of those. Finding different markets too that I haven't been established in. So people in Southeast Wyoming, I think, are more or less familiar with me and what I do. I do have work in states across the country. But I think shows like that are more prominent and there's a more— you reach a more specific audience and clientele that you want to reach with those things. Yeah, expanding in the West for sure. Yeah, and outside of the West too.

And then kind of like the next step beyond that is like, uh, if you were to have a solo show somewhere, can you kind of like describe what you think you might like that to be? I don't know, it's like, uh, as far as like your work is concerned.

Yeah. As far as my work is concerned, I would love to do a series of pieces, like 10 or so, exploring one concept in depth and then show that in an exhibition. Yeah. I think I've had— I've wanted to do that for a long time, but I have sort of like, I don't know if I have a short attention span or what, but I'll do like 2 of a similar theme and then just be like, I gotta move on. But if I had, I think if I had more time to sort of dedicate to it, I would be able to do more of an exploration of a sort of single theme.

Well, yeah, I think that would be— I would like to see that. Yeah, I think that would be, you know, make for a good show.

Yeah, that would be great. So something to hope for for the future.

Yeah, it'd be interesting to see how your chili test comes out on a big group of paintings like that.

Yeah, and I'd have to expand it because it would be like different batches of chili all working together.

Yeah, exactly.

Because you have to sort of— I feel like something like that, you have to consider them as the whole and not necessarily as just the individual pieces.

It can be a chili cook-off, but you're gonna have to have a whole range of awards.

Yeah, yeah, like hottest and most flavorful and healthiest. I don't know.

Healthiest chili.

Healthiest chili.

No thank you. So do you think that the fact that you are not formally schooled is a benefit to your work? And if so, like, how would you say?

I mean, I feel like one thing self-taught artists probably tell themselves is that it's a benefit because they don't have that sort of like ingrained approaches that they picked up. There's like more freedom or something to developing your own approach to it. I think I believed that a lot at first. I think it's sort of like a wave, like there's periods where like, yes, this is great, I don't have this is a super like original idea that I came up with that was not influenced by anybody. But then there's also times like, man, I wish I just would have had this very like rudimentary, right, you know, instruction on this very basic process.

Yeah.

And then there's other things too that there's a lot of people talk about, like the things you don't get taught in art school anyway, which is the like the marketing and the business side of— oh sure, of being an artist. But for some of those technical things, I do wish now that I'd had some of that instruction rather than going through all that on my own. But there's also then, I think, benefits to that as well because there's a lot of struggle and suffering that brings you closer to your craft, I guess.

I think so, yeah. All right, so let's switch gears here and do kind of like a quick— tell me off the top of your head, 3 influences.

I think first is a really early one was Van Gogh.

Okay. Before we get into that, let's go to the next one.

Okay, let's say Georgia O'Keeffe.

Okay.

And then for a contemporary one, I'd say, and I've never actually said this guy's name out loud, but I'm sure you know who Logan Ajdez, is that how it's pronounced? I know you know his work, but—

All right, let's go back and talk about him.

Okay. Van Gogh, yeah. I have always loved how much paint he used. He was super structural and the color use obviously very, very influential, very bold. I've always responded to boldness and bold color in art. I really, I do also just on another wavelength, I'm a big fan of abstract impressionism too. So sort of all in that same vein.

Okay, well then O'Keeffe.

O'Keeffe, yeah, sort of thematically I think what she did as far as the subjects that she chose. The skulls, obviously, I'm a huge fan of.

Oh, right, yeah, I've seen some of your skulls.

Those are probably some of my favorite ones that I paint, and she's the most well-known of that subject. Sure. Georgia O'Keeffe was actually my grandma's favorite artist, so I had a long exposure to her, and we took— never actually been to Ghost Ranch, but took several trips to New Mexico with my grandma.

So, oh cool, so it's kind of like a developmental association too. Yeah, like development, like personally, like growing up, right?

And her florals too. I've done a couple florals that sort of draw from another sort of groundbreaking thing she has established.

And yeah, I mean, I like your florals a lot. The pink rose you've got, uh, that you've done recently looks really great. I thought it was a cool, uh, shift to see that side of your work.

Yeah.

And then Logan, Logan H.'s work.

There we go. Yeah, he sort of mastered the blend of traditional and contemporary, which is what I aspire to. And I just really, again, like boldness and color, sort of semi-abstraction of shapes, sort of cartoonish sort of influences. So yeah, a lot of respect there.

Oh, definitely. You know, you talk about finding your artistic voice, and that's somebody who clearly did and stuck with it and evolved with it.

I think that's one of the hard things about any artist is at what point they discover that and determine that's going to be what it is that they're going to stick with.

So yeah, well, he's been doing it for a while. All right, so do you have a favorite brush or a secret weapon that you like to use?

Not really.

My brush collection has sort of been— it's the conglomeration of stuff I've accumulated over, you know, even stuff from childhood. I use a lot of sort of small round brushes. But my medium, I guess, is something that is important to my process, and it's just a combination of linseed oil and just like generic odorless— oh, I can't even remember the brand— just a general medium cut with linseed oil. It sort of helps speed drying time but doesn't get as matte as like pure medium does.

Gotcha.

As far as the brushes go, it's sort of just a Whatever I grab first.

Whatever you think will work for the situation.

Yeah.

Do you listen to any music while you paint?

I do almost always, and it's just my iPod on shuffle, which is actually mostly metalcore. Okay. I do have a lot of different musical interests, but I do listen to a lot of metal, so— Cool. Yeah.

There's a I'm trying to— I don't know why I can't remember the name now, but a good friend of mine is a pedal steel musician.

Oh, nice.

Made an instrumental, like, metal-influenced album.

That's cool.

It's really cool. I'll look it up and send it to you at some point.

Yeah, that'd be great. I do love pedal steel too, so.

Oh yeah, I mean, it's got kind of like a Western feel to it.

Yeah.

Here's a sample of the pedal steel record I was trying to remember the name of. Both the artist and the record title are Demon Bear, written and performed by Llamo McJunkins of Austin, Texas. As a side note, he played all the pedal steel parts used in the intro music bed. Check out Demon Bear at demonbear.bandcamp.com.

Now back to the visual arts.

I'm sure it'd be interesting to track what I listen to compared to what I paint. Paint and see what— see how the results line up.

Like, this artist comes out with, "When I paint skulls." Yeah, yeah, just death metal.

Yeah.

Who's your favorite metal band?

I listen to Trivium the most.

Trivium.

Yeah, I don't know if you know them. No. Killswitch Engage is another big one, but then I also— Red Hot Chili Peppers is also one of my favorite bands. Cake is another one of those top ones that I go back to all the time.

That's when you do your fun paintings, right?

Yeah, I think when I listen to Cake, those are the most like surly paintings.

Okay.

I feel like they have a lot of sarcastic sort of music, so yeah.

So how do you, you have a day job, how do you balance your creative side and your painting with your day job? And/or like, do you have any, like, what's your painting schedule like?

It's— that's been the hardest thing to figure out over the last, last year or so. My painting schedule is— the way I've worked it out the best is I save the actual in-depth painting sessions for the weekends where I can do 2 to 4 hours at a time.

Sure.

And then like on weeknights I'll do like some canvas prep or do early stages of the process that don't— like, like drawing the design on the canvas or that sort of thing that don't involve a lot of like plugging in, a lot of focus or concentration.

That's cool.

So that's what I've been doing for the last couple months. I just definitely don't have as much time to work as I'd like, which creates some anxiety as far as like what I choose to spend my time on. I have so many ideas and projects I want to do, but I can only do maybe one a month, right? So, but at work I have a sketchbook at work. I have a journal that I'll constantly write ideas down and do drawing on my desk and stuff. So I try to do, do what I can with the setting that I'm in.

I think that you're not alone in having that kind of like constraint, right?

Yeah.

But I wonder like, you know, when you start to get to a point, and you may never get to a point where you're feeling comfortable with your explorations and then getting, you know, like wanting to try new things, but I wonder if you could like create a vision for a series, for like a solo show that's not scheduled anywhere right now, right?

Right.

And then just try and execute on that over a number of months.

Yeah.

And then, and then maybe you'll be closer to whatever the next step is, you know, in your career.

I like that thought because I mean, the more you do of an idea or a subject, like, the more you'll get to know it. And I think by the end of something like that, you would have a good idea on if it's a good idea or not.

True, yeah. And then, you know, along the way you could— you can still submit pieces that come out of that to group shows or whatever, right? If you feel like it.

Yeah, I don't know.

I'm not trying—

no, that's any— yeah, just having ideas. I'll take any ideas. I do try and do a mix of larger, more developed pieces and then do a lot of like little 5x7 or 8x10 really quick pieces that are more sort of experimental or trying to study, you know, landscapes directly from reference or trying to get accuracy and color and stuff like that.

Yeah.

For a while I would do exercises where I'd take like a 5x7 and set my timer for an hour and just like crank out a painting.

Oh, cool.

And I got actually a lot of really good, good results from that. So I need to get back into that because that was a good— that's a good exercise.

Cool. Yeah, that seems like it'd be good, keep you sharp.

Yeah.

Tell me about the first painting you sold.

I think, yeah, the first painting I sold was to my high school art teacher for like $50. He's been the biggest supporter from day one. And it was, I think it was like a 16 by 20 acrylic of like an explosion in the desert or something like that. There's a lot of chaos in it, a lot of oranges and reds and splatters and I don't know, it was an interesting one.

This may, this may like overlap, I don't know, but what's one piece of advice you were told that's made like a difference in your career as a painter?

I think, um, don't be afraid to hear no is a really good one. Trust your instincts is another one, to sort of fight that temptation to just do what you think your family would like or what you think would sell, what you think would get approval from outside, that sort of thing. So the combination of those two I think is the best advice I've tried to always keep in mind.

Cool. Have you ever had a booth at an art show or anything like that?

I haven't done that sort of thing. There are opportunities for— there's a big— the Cherry Creek Art Festival in Denver is a big one. There's one in Cheyenne every summer, but I haven't— I feel it's a different sort of mindset to showing work than showing it in an exhibition, just because I think those art fairs are sort of— feel to me more for selling, which is a combination of like— and I don't like selling my work to begin with. I don't like that process because I— yeah, as a consumer, I never like feeling badgered to buy something, and so That's what I just assume that all selling is, which is not true. But, um, so that's the, that's the biggest, I think the biggest reason why I haven't. And it's also just like a confidence thing because I am so critical. I would never feel like I have a cohesive enough, you know, set of works available to be like, this is what I'm going to put out to the world and say, this is like, this is me, you should spend money on it.

So, ah, well, You need a champion, I guess.

I have— well, and what happens, I mean, I do—

there are—

it's not like I hate every piece I make. Like, I shouldn't put out that vibe. There are definitely— I do like what I produce. Yeah, but those tend to then go out the door faster, and so the stuff I have lying around that's available around my house is usually like not the best of the best, not your favorite pieces.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, sometimes I will have pieces I do really like that nobody wants to buy, which is fine. I have a few in a personal collection that I'll just reserve those for me. Those are some of those experimental ones that were good enough to hang around or hang on to.

Yeah, you know, I mentioned that you've got pieces hanging in some local galleries. How did you get into those places?

So the one I'm in in Cheyenne, I sort of— I knew the owner a little bit by going to visit the gallery over time, and then he asked me to be like the feature. So Cheyenne does an art walk every month, like a lot of places do, and so he asked me to be the featured artist for one month, and I showed some of my stuff there. And then after that was over, I asked him if he'd have any interest in like taking me on and keeping some stuff around. And he has a sort of a really broad array of types of pieces there. And mine didn't really fit in with what he had already. So he was, I think, happy to take them in. And then the one I'm in in Laramie is a, it's like a co-op. The gallery is run by this organization called the Wyoming Women's Business Center. And they're a nonprofit group that helps with small business in Wyoming. This gallery is a project of theirs that is for Wyoming-only artists.

Who are not all women?

No, not all women. And they don't actually only— I think it's part of their mission to help with women in business in particular, but they don't only provide their services to just women. It's just they're open to small business. Yeah, that's the great thing. And so they have a studio space too that I was part of. And so when you're, when you're part of that studio, you get— you don't have, like, don't have to pay the membership fee or something to the gallery. So I was like, why not? And I've actually done incredible business through them. It was—

wow.

I wasn't really sure what to expect up front just because Laramie is not actually a big art town, and this is just like a retail, you know, this is on the street, people walking in. So, but I've been pleasantly surprised there.

That's good.

Yeah.

Wow. Well, I think I might be out of questions for now. Okay, works out with the schedule a little bit.

Yeah, I don't really talk about my art like this with anybody, so it's good to personally reflect on it when you're forced to sort of, you know, think about some of these things.

Oh yeah, well, yeah, so another question is, do you have any artist friends that you kind of like critique each other's work or anything like that, or is it more just like your self-reflection?

Yeah, Jason Lohmeyer and I have actually done some of that. I don't have— there's not a really great network of people working in my medium and genre geographically close to me.

There are—

there's a lot of great artists in Laramie. It's just not people who are doing that similar stuff. But Jason, it seemed like he was sort of navigating some of the same waters I was, and so I reached out to him and suggested that. And so we have— we haven't done it in a while, but we do do that occasionally, send finished pieces for critiques or like stuff in progress to get advice on.

So how did you guys connect?

Just Through Instagram.

That's what I was wondering.

Yeah, there are some, some people who have, you know, you form a little community.

Jason's super nice guy. Yeah, I've never, never met him, obviously, but I've never met him in person, but I've interacted with him over Instagram and then direct messaging.

He's good at critiquing.

Oh, okay. So you mentioned Jason and I was thinking I should have him on. I was going to ask you for two kind of like suggestions of people I should have on the show. And/or intros if I don't know who they are?

Oh gosh, um, yeah, I might have to look—

who would you like to hear on the show would be another thought.

Maybe, uh, I like Marsha Molnar's work a lot. I don't know if you're familiar with her. Sort of reminds me of Ed Mell in a way, but like not— oh yes, she does some— she does roses and some florals too.

I love her recent ones with all the lightning and the Yeah, the vertical formats, those are awesome.

Yeah, that's one that, um, comes to mind right away.

That's a great idea.

Yeah.

Well, great, Luke, it's really been— it's been a pleasure to talking with you, and yeah, I wish you the best of luck, and I'm excited to continue to see your work progress.

Well, thanks, I appreciate it. I appreciate the opportunity to talk about it too, so.

All right, yeah, take care.

Yeah, bye.

So that's it for this show. Thank you for listening, and another big thanks to Luke Anderson, fineart.com, for taking the time to talk art and for sharing his secret chili recipe. If you like the show, please leave a review on iTunes or share an episode with a friend. If you have comments, suggestions, or for sponsorship opportunities, please email me directly at info@western.gallery or direct message @westerngallery on Instagram. Horizons is produced by Western Gallery for the love of Western art and artists of all genres. Music in this episode is by The Georgian Company and Just Guns, whom you can find on iTunes and Spotify, courtesy of Pants of Fate Records and How You Like My Moves Music. Thanks again, and tune in next time for a conversation with Western landscape artist Danica Ostrowski.