Article by Jennifer Dempsey
Local Artists – March 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
WHETHER HE’S PAINTING a waterfall, tree root or mandolin player, artist Joshua Been wants to show the inhabitants of this world how beautiful it is.
“Painting is a way of framing moments of beauty,” said the 33-year-old Salida artist. “I try to show the world why I find a subject particularly amazing. If a viewer sees one of my paintings and appreciates that subject matter a bit more than they did before, after I perhaps showed them how to see it in a unique way, then I feel I have done my job. I just can’t get over how amazing this world we live in is.”
Late last year, Been opened The Virtuosity Gallery, his studio and gallery located at 106 North F. Street, which he shares with his wife, photographer and artist Laura Murphy.
“I look at painting as a visual journal of my life,” he said. “I have something to say with each place I see. It is moments in time that I’m after, fleeting light effects, or simply the human experience in the here and now. I paint what I live in the 21st century.
“I’m not trying to free load off society by being an artist, to take without giving back. With my artwork, I frame reminders for you to look closer at the world around you, but, for now I’ll have to do that part time for you as I still have to deal with a 9-5 job.”
But as 9-5s go, his isn’t too bad, he admits. Since April, Been has been teaching art at the Buena Vista Correctional Facility.
“It’s an interesting job and it helps the guys in a profound way,” he says. “One of the cool things about what I teach is that it connects them to society in a way that many of them, perhaps, didn’t have before. By learning from me, with my training coming from traditions of the old masters from the French Academy, it’s connecting them to art history. Also, I think the process of being inspired is really healthy. They are learning something that can occupy their brain while they’re locked up, something that’s completely engaging and very introspective.
“It’s not abstract expressionism where, if you’re mad, you throw red at the canvas; it’s much more calculated. They’re tuning up their hand- eye coordination while learning powerful concepts of this rich lineage. We’re standing on the shoulders of giants, let’s not reinvent the wheel. I tell the guys as long as you just start a drawing you’ll be engaged for the rest of the afternoon.”
And, Been said, he learns something new every day on the job.
“Through teaching at the prison I have also learned a lot about my craft,” he said. “I have accumulated a lot of knowledge about painting, but I didn’t know, at first, how to say it. I had a lot of nebulous thoughts and concepts. Through teaching, I could put them into words and it re-enforces what I know. Now that I am teaching it, I’m forced to analyze everything I do, and I have to practice what I preach.”
Been grew up in Denver where in third grade his teachers recognized an active imagination and knack for draftsmanship. He was placed in the The Denver Art Program, an extracurricular activity designed to facilitate the growth of young artists. His love of drawing remained with him throughout high school and while he was in the U.S. Army. After graduating Magna Cum Laude at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Been moved to Los Angeles where he worked as an animator for Cartoon Network, Titmouse Animation, Disney TV, and Midway Video Games.
“I always wanted to be an animator until I was an animator,” he said with a laugh. “It wasn’t as liberating as I thought it might be. I have a hard time taking art direction and, in that field, you have to take an extraordinary amount of it.”
One evening after work in 2003, Been accompanied another animator to a painting class and “fell in love overnight,” he said. “I really grooved with the whole color and values thing. I got it pretty quickly having had a lot of drawing experience. I took a lot of figure painting classes, and on the side I would go out and paint the outdoors from life. I love painting from nature, the bugs, wind, sun, and changing light are endearing challenges. I found myself more and more captivated by painting the creeks and valleys in the Los Angeles area and I thought why aren’t I back in Colorado if I’m going to do this subject matter?”
Been made the move back to Colorado in 2005 and has shown his work in many regional shows including, most recently, National Paint the Parks where he placed in the top 100.
Been cites his influences as turn-of-the-20th-century artists John Singer Sargent, Anders Zorn, Jean-Leon Gerome, and Joaquin Sorolla, as well as contemporary artists Clyde Aspevig, Richard Schmid and Gerald Merfeld.
While establishing a name for himself in the world of plein air painting, Been hasn’t abandoned the world of animation, as his site www.funkbuttah.com demonstrates.
“It’s all weird science fiction fantasy stuff,” he said. “A completely different style. It’s still so a part of who I am, like an alter ego.”
This winter Been has been offering painting classes on Tuesday evenings from 6-9 p.m. The classes are for all levels and abilities and focus on the fundamentals of values, edges and temperatures. To register call 719-539-3354.
Drop-in life drawing sessions are held every Wednesday at the Gallery from 5 to 9 p.m. for $10. All artists are welcome.
To see samples of Been’s paintings and drawings, go to joshuabeen.com
With no day job, Jennifer Dempsey stays quite busy in Salida, and free-lance writing is one of the ways she stays busy.
