by Stephen Morath
Stephen Morath (1954-), a native of Colorado, is a visual storyteller. His brightly colored paintings are a feast of objects, scenes, and people of the American Southwest. His work clearly conveys a love and often wry view of the region. He comments, “I am drawn not only to the beauties but also the oddities of the Southwest – the outrageous topography, the tourist traps, the honky-tonk strips, the old motel signs, the clash of cultures, the places where Indian America meets the science fiction of the ‘Fifties; as well as the pueblos, the sparkling deserts, the blue ranges, the birds in the morning…I prefer the rural countryside to the unpopulated wilderness, and rarely paint a landscape without some kind of human activity or artifact in it.”
