Meet Monte Moore | Fine Artist and Illustrator

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

Hi Monte, what do you attribute your success to?
As a professional artist for over 30 years, I think most of my success comes from being doggedly determined and never giving up. Most non-artists think that being an artist has to do with ‘talent’ and that it’s an intangible ‘gift’ that some are born with, but honestly I’ve met very few ‘gifted’ artists, although they are indeed out there. In the world of the arts there are extremely few that are the Brahms or the Mozart, the DaVinci or the Michelangelo that are generational standouts. Most of us find success due to long hours of hard work at the art table, going on the road to promote and sell our creations at shows, galleries, conventions and relentless social media posting and activity. It’s not the for the faint at heart….hence the term ‘starving artist’, I don’t know any other careers that have the description as an apt part of their career choice. Determination to never give up in following one’s dreams can apply to any and all careers, and I think it’s one of those things where eventually the hard work pays off when the skills you learn get you to a point where you are recognized and respected for what you have created, and you’ve built a loyal fan and customer base that will support that pursuit. Now when I see fans that are wearing apparel with my studio logo, or even more…have my logo tattooed on them….I know I’ve created something special that fans want to show … I’m a fan of Maverick Arts Studio!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I decided to pursue a career in art when I was 16 and have never taken my foot of the gas since. I’m not a ‘talented’ artist, I wasn’t even a stand out artist when I was young, I was average at best, but once I started applying myself to art techniques outside of high school art class I started excelling in the arts. My first major step was learning to airbrush from books and long hours of practice. Towards the end of High School I earned a few art scholarships, and then throughout my 4 years getting my degree in Graphic Design, I pushed myself to excel to increase my chances of a financially successful career choice. I wouldn’t say any of it was ‘easy’ if it was easy everyone would do it, but honestly there are very few artists who make it a full time career and never have a side job to pay for times when things are lean. I met a couple of fellow artists in college who were publishing their own comic book, and I joined the team, and it opened up a whole new world for me when I attended the San Diego Comic-Con International in 1993. From then on, I knew that comics and later the world of strategy gaming would be much more fulfilling for me, as the thought of drawing dragons and superheroes, pinup girls to science fiction was invigorating! In the beginning, I would only get a few freelance jobs per year, but that grew over time as did my skill set, and in the meantime I had a full time job as a graphic designer designing logos and advertising outside of the field of pop-culture. I started to set myself apart from my peers in my mid 20s spending most of my free time drawing art to sell and market, and I did that in almost any market you can think of, including pop-culture, automotive art, wildlife art, murals and any and all artistic pursuits. I think the thing that sets me apart from most artists is that I don’t have one preferred set style or genre. Most artists all specialize, and they will paint only Western in Oils for example, or only Auto Art with Airbrush, but I could list easily 50 artists that influenced me, and at times I tried to paint like them, so now I’m known as the guy who paints, sculpts, draws, writes and publishes comics, writes screenplays, makes feature films and pretty much tries to be as much as of a Renaissance Man as I can be with various artistic pursuits that keep me full tilt boogie 365 days of the year! I have so many different pursuits that I have 4-5 different websites for various industries !

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Colorado is definitely known for its great outdoors, so I doubt we would spend much time in the Denver ‘downtown’ area. Most likely it would be hiking and skiing, bike rides or visiting Chatfield to spend a day on the lake with a great view of the Rockies. After that a few days in Breckenridge for some shopping at The Mountain Goat and eating at Ember. In Littleton where I live, we might hit Angelo’s Taverna for Happy Hour, or my local spot El Mason for great drinks and authentic Mexican food from Fredy and Bertha. Probably finish up the week by taking the motorcycles on the road for a high mountain tour up through Lyons or Estes Park, or down to the southern part of the state and up along the scenic roads of the Western Slope through Ridgeway, Ouray and other fun Colorado cities that many never visit.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My most influential mentor was the late great Frank Covino, whom I studied with for over 15 years. I would travel to other cities or he would come to Denver to teach week long workshops on classic painting techniques. The great part about what he was teaching is that it’s a lost and dying art, as he was teaching the Classic Academic Painting method from the great masters of the Renaissance Art Period, and you can’t learn those techniques in modern art schools anywhere in the world, not even in Italy, because those techniques aren’t ‘in fashion’ with artists today. Frank learned and taught these techniques to help keep the knowledge alive, and he shared the knowledge with several thousand students over the course of his lifetime. We became good friends and he imparted a lot of knowledge and inspiration to me that I never got in my own 4 year college education in the arts.

Website: www.mavarts.com. www.theartofmontemoore.com www.montemoore.com

Instagram: MavArts

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monte-m-moore-386b85/

Twitter: https://x.com/MavArtsMonte

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/monte.m.moore

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MonteMooreArtAttack

Other: All Related Links at LINKTREE! – https://linktr.ee/studioscarab

Image Credits
All Images © copyright and by Monte M. Moore