Meet Alex Gibson | Artist & Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Alex Gibson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Alex, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
The artistic & creative realms are where I’ve always felt most “me.” I had an awesome art teacher in second grade at Bells Mill Elementary in Potomac, MD (circa 2006?) that awakened my love for art. She was enthusiastic, curious, and wanted us to be excited about what we were doing. It felt really good, and I’ve been following that feeling ever since. I suppose that working with my hands – with shape and color – just felt natural to me. I could do the other stuff like math and science just fine, but it never made me feel alive in the way that art does.

My educational path has been significant in shaping my career path as well, so I’ll provide a bit of context there.

Through my school years, I took a stab at a few different mediums, starting with photography in high school. This is where I learned about composition, how to choose a subject, and what it means to make creative choices. Photography was my first love.

While studying at Colgate University in central NY, I worked as a photographer for the Maroon-News newspaper and took a number of photography classes there as well. While at Colgate, I also took a variety of studio art classes, where I engaged in drawing, painting, large-scale sculpture installation, metalsmithing, and art history. I also explored a potential career in architecture. Colgate did not have a full-on architecture program, but through a few classes, I fell in love with the structured and considered logical framework that architectural design takes on. After graduating, I wanted to dig into architecture a bit more, and spent the summer at UC Berkeley’s IN[ARCH] program. It was an inspiring experience, but I ultimately decided, for a number of reasons, that it wasn’t my time to be an architect. Perhaps in the next life.

Following that summer in Berkeley, I took some time to reset. I knew I wanted to do creative work, and that I didn’t want to sit in a cubicle crunching numbers all day. But I didn’t know what kind of path I could take. So, I got a job waiting tables at a local Italian restaurant and started researching and learning graphic design in my free time. I also started working, serendipitously, with two wildly talented architectural photographers – Judy Davis and Anice Hoachlander – as a photography assistant in the DMV region. During this time, I taught myself the ins and outs of Adobe Illustrator and InDesign, which are critical for my current gig. I’m currently working as a designer and art director at a marketing agency named Alluvus, which is based out of Washington, DC. My life partner Jess and I are also working to get Groove Revival, a collaborative studio and design practice, off the ground in the next year.

Ultimately, my pursuit of an artistic career is rooted in a deep-seated belief that creativity is essential—not just for individual fulfillment but for the enrichment of our communities. I want to create work that resonates with others, sparking inspiration and conversation. I aspire to use my skills not only to express my own vision but also to elevate and energize those around me.

As I continue on this path, I remain committed to lifelong learning and collaboration, eager to explore new mediums and ideas. I hope to contribute to a world where creativity is accessible to all, enabling everyone to express their unique perspectives. In the end, art is not just what I do; it’s who I am, and I can’t wait to see where this journey takes me next.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
In my free time, I’ve been really enjoying the process of painting. Especially switching between oils and acrylics. The variance in drying time means that you have to be really intentional about what to do at what point, and be quite conscious of time and painting speed. It’s a fun challenge. I also dabble in digital art – primarily vector-based stuff, and some photo-manipulation-style work. I’m also slowly but surely learning some motion graphics. Playing around with After Effects, sketching out some rough “music videos” and geometric animations has been an interesting practice. The software is quite complicated and at higher levels verges on coding. I’m not quite there yet but I like to envision myself down the line producing really intentional 3D animated visuals for my favorite musicians.

Long term, I’d also like to dive deep on metalsmithing. Computers are great, but sometimes I miss working with my hands! My partner Jess and I would love to run a brick and mortar shop & studio at some point too. We’d love to have a storefront where we could engage with the community, selling ours, our friends, and other local artists’ work. Maybe that’s where I’ll have my metalsmithing studio, too. Who knows!

In terms of getting to where I am today, I have to give a lot of credit to experimentation. Getting to know myself has been a long and winding process, though I have consistently found that the more things I try, the more I know what I do and don’t like, and what comes easily versus what requires more effort. You don’t know what you don’t know. I encourage anyone who is trying to find their “calling” to, as a starting point, do a lot of reading and research into what is even out there. It took me a while to even be able to name the paths I could take creatively, let alone actually understand what would be required of me if I were to go down said paths. Patience is a cultivated skill. Take your time (I say to myself…)!

And then, in terms of my brand and story, I guess I’d like people to just pay close attention. Not necessarily to what I’m saying, but to how they react to my work. In an ideal world, I’d be basically removed from the art-to-viewer relationship, and the relationship would only exist between the viewer and the art (Unless the viewer wants to be friends, I guess). I find that the best art acts as a pure mirror, reflecting back to the viewer an insight or question that they may not have had before. Acting as a conduit for growth, exploration, and expansion. So, I suppose that’s my intention – to get myself out of the equation, allowing the creativity to exist and flow independently? Hmm. Probably going to journal on that at some point.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Denver is unique in that you have a bustling and lively city scene, but also near-immediate proximity to world class rugged natural landscapes. When friends visit, I usually start by taking them either to RiNo (if they’re beer drinkers) for a drink and an art walk, or over to the Santa Fe Arts District to explore galleries and that epic knick-knack shop.

And then, I love the mountains, so my recommendation would be to go for a drive, explore a few mountain towns, and then do some hiking and camping (in the summer) or skiing (in the winter). There’s so much to explore out here! And if they want to stay closer in, I’d suggest we go tubing on Clear Creek in Golden (again, in the summer). Having grown up on the east coast, it is such a delight to explore all the different natural landscapes out here.

Oh, and probably a concert or two. Or three. Red Rocks is pretty cool. And shout out to Cervantes’, where I’ve been live painting the past few months!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Shoutout to my parents for supporting me as I pursue my dreams, and allowing me to be “me”! I’d also like to thank my life partner, Jess, for her steadfast love and encouragement as we navigate life together.

Website: https://agibsonart.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/agibsonart/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gibsonalex

Other: https://www.instagram.com/groove_revival/