John Roberts
“I relish the infinite possibility of that first mark on a canvas. I enjoy the chaos of the middle painting when I wonder if I should throw the whole thing in the trash. I savor the coalescing surprise of the final touches and the moment I can say, “It’s done.” For me the journey is as important as the destination and the process is as important as the final result. In that I find peace.”
Biography
When John was 18 and a first-year student at the University of New Mexico, he registered for an art class–mostly because he had enjoyed art in high school. On the first day the professor gave the class an activity which he did not understand, and mocked John’s attempts. He was humiliated, never returned, and never forgot.
During the following half century, he worked on farms and ranches, finished an English degree at EMC after dropping out of school twice (a rite of passage in the 60″s), and taught high school English, drama, and speech. He worked in education administration, did a little writing, and further acquired a degree in “Creative Something or Other” from the University of Montana.
He married, helped raise seven children, and acquired 11 grandchildren. His dear wife, Janice, contributed significantly to his success. She is a great admirer of his artistic efforts and quite an astute critic of things that don’t make sense (the eyeball in the middle of the cheek sort of thing), and in all that time, though he never really forgot that college professor, he thought hardly a moment of taking up painting.
Then, in February of 2021, John suffered a stroke. After a complete and successful recovery, he realized his reaction time and focus was not what it once was. He discontinued woodworking and became interested in painting landscapes. (Very difficult to cut off your fingers with a paint brush though maybe an ear might be in the realm of possibility.) He bought some paints, watched them carefully for a couple of months, and then, on September 16th, 2021, cranked up YouTube and cranked out his first painting. He decided to do 100 paintings, then 500, and so it continued. He took classes from local artists; read a whole bunch of books; did 10 studies of Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring”; painted 14 pictures in one day. To date, he has painted over 1000 paintings.
We live in a world of pathological mass production; we are at the mercy of the ones and zeros of digitized images and words. John’s art is his chance to give to the universe something truly unique, if only in a small way. The landscapes he paints today have their source in his childhood, growing up along the Yellowstone River near Miles City. He is grateful that Idyllic world still exists, at least in his memories, and he tries to give it a slight touch of immortality in his art.
