In his own words.
A self-taught painter in Flagstaff, AZ, signing his work “SR.” This is the short version, in his voice — the fuller story lives in the work.
Draft — artist to approve
I'm a self-taught painter in Flagstaff, AZ, and I sign my work “SR.” I came up through a hard, chaotic childhood, and later through my own years of addiction. Painting is how I found a way through.
I've always made things. As a kid I drew what I saw and tried to put my own spin on it. Years later, at a low point, I started painting in earnest — it gave me somewhere to put what I was carrying, and a measure of peace I hadn't been able to find anywhere else.
What I paint.
The desert. The San Francisco Peaks. Night roads under the Milky Way. Foxes and firelight. And, sometimes, the harder interior weather. I take inspiration from the world around me and the world inside me — the two aren't really separate.
The best part is that I almost never know what a piece is going to be until it's finished. I put everything I have into the work and let it arrive on its own.
“The Crows.”
This is the most direct thing I've made about that time — a way of taking a broken stretch and putting it onto canvas instead of carrying it. I keep it here, with room around it, because it says more than I can.
“This Too Shall Pass” · Acrylic on canvas “This too, shall pass.” — the shopfront sign, and the idea the work is built on