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

Hi Amy, how do you think about risk?
When a creative person decides to become a professional artist they take a financial risk with much uncertainty, but with tons of hope for the future. Personally, it was never a big decision for me, but more of an obvious choice to pursue an artistic life. From a very young age I was hardwired as a creative soul and was more drawn to working with my hands.

Nothing gives me more joy in life than creating new images and all things handmade whether it is carving a new block for printing, drawing a landscape on site with soft pastels or making a handmade household object. Many years ago I did take a big risk making the choice to live in a tiny Western Slope town that were for many years off the art radar, but had the immense, almost untouched wilderness at their back door. These wild places became a huge inspiration for my work. My steady outdoor explorations, living and breathing that quietness with few people around, developed into a huge respect for wildlife and native plants along with the rivers and trails.

Living in a small town has made me a more resilient artist ultimately by creating work that connects more with the public.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Being a fine artist, I partially make my living depicting wildlife images & the other half from the wild landscape. The inherent existence of wild creatures & their native habitat, in essence, has been my focus for 3 decades so the health of the planet’s creatures & where they choose to live is extremely important to me.

As a landscape and wildlife woodcut artist I get my inspiration for new images from the outdoors, whether it’s the top of the mountain, in the deep forests leading up to the top or in the canyon bottoms. The different ecological zones at different elevations have their unique characteristics and animals that live there, sometimes overlapping from one zone to the other. I love exploring new trails, new peaks and new corners of nature that are I am unfamiliar with. It continually reminds me how vast our public lands are and that I am fortunate to be able to enjoy these wild places set aside by forward thinking pioneers for future generations to experience and be inspired. I have donated my artwork for local, environmental causes as a way of giving back to these treasured landscapes. By being a good steward I hope to help support protecting the environment in my own backyard.

I do both simpler woodcuts and very fine carved, multi-layered, reductive, limited edition woodcuts. It really depends on the image and whether I am printing on handmade paper or fabric. Feathers & furry lines translate well into u shaped & v shaped lines left by small carving tools. The block is a composition of positive & negative shapes played against each other in a distinct style not duplicated by machines. It has the evidence of my hand & shows the viewer which ridge of carved lines was important for me to leave or other ridges that were not & carved away. After the entire block is carved, it is then inked up with a roller from a mixing palette to the carved block over & over to get a seamless field. The paper is removed from a water bath, blotted & laid on a registration sheet. Next, the block is pushed down on the paper & either hand printed or put through a roller press to get a good impression, one image at a time. Hand printing is satisfying work even if it is slower than commercial printing, but the advantage is that I can control the colors & alter them as I go or the next time that I print the same block I can change the color palette entirely & transform the mood of the image ultimately. In essence hand printing gives me much more flexibility in the long run.

Slow printing is almost an act of defiance these days against our digital onslaught that seems to be taking over our lives bit by byte every day, every year. The response I typically get from viewing my block prints is the shock from the richness of the colors. The public is amazed at the density of color that is achieved from the antiquated slow process of traditional printing. I tell them that if they were to look at my hand pulled prints with a magnifying lens it would show a dense color field, not a field of digital dots. Why is this important? Because sometimes the original technology is better. You do not need a machine (generated by power) to get exceptional results. It is totally hand powered.

Being a fine artist takes years of building your skill set and patience. The reality is art is a career similar to other careers in that it is cultivated over decades of work and the subtleties that go along with it. To think that art is somehow free from that is ridiculous. It is a process of also building up your ‘art resume’ similar to other careers.

Lastly, I believe original art work is a really good, long term investment which is made evident by art appraisers value of fine art increasing over the years. I think it is a more stable investment than the stock market. The art market is not dictated by emotional investors, but rather art collectors who are patient and are willing to wait decades to see their investment realize it’s full potential in their later years or with their descendants.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Since I live in Southwestern Colorado, I would take a guest to my personal favorite spots in my region: 1. Mesa Verde NP
2. Downtown Mancos, a classic charming small town and a Colorado Creative District.
3. Mancos Burro Festival in mid June which celebrates Colorado’s mule & burro heritage that transported supplies to mining camps in the High Country. There is a wild and goofy burro obstacle race downtown with burros dressed up in costume!
4. Olio, a farm to table restaurant with a small and intimate dining experience with the best food in the 4 Corners.
5. Downtown Silverton which is the last undeveloped high elevation Colorado town with an intact historic district and neighborhoods.
6. San Juan County Historical Museum which has an amazing gem collection and reproduction mine workings in an historic boarding house.
7. Backcountry trails and high alpine lakes around Silverton which are not to be missed.
8. Highway 550 drive to Ouray over Red Mountain Pass and through the Uncompahgre River Gorge.
9. Downtown Ouray with it’s many eateries, shops and hot springs.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I think my mother, Joan, was an inspiration as a young girl. In addition to being very skillful by making many things around the house, ie baskets, quilting, sewing clothes, knitting, gourmet cakes and pastry, she was really known in her community for restoring furniture from the ground up including caning. It should be noted that pursuing a more masculine hobby for a woman was not common in the 1970s. As my sister said “our mother broke the mold” in quietly dismantling gender roles in our conservative Midwestern town. My mother encouraged me to make my own creations as well and saw my artistic skills develop over time but when she noticed in middle school that I was accurately drawing portraits of my sister’s stuffed animals, she enrolled me in a summer adult color art class with oils. From then on I was doing more fine art.

Also my high school art teacher, Mary Gehr, was very encouraging and supportive. The art program that she and the other art teacher created in my high school was very comprehensive and I had the good fortune to have her for all 4 years.

When it came time to decide where to go to college, my father was very supportive of me in pursuing a fine arts degree. John also made the effort to fly out to attend opening night at a show I had at a renowned arts center in Colorado.

My sister, Molly, who was instrumental in arranging a solo art show for me in France years ago as well as being emotionally and financially supportive of my work in general. And my late brother, Mark and his wife, Steff who came to opening night at my first solo art gallery show and then bought one of my larger pieces.
And last, but certainly not least, Charles, my husband and soul mate for over 30 years! He has helped me countless times in building art displays, making frames, dropping off artwork, editing applications and helping me set up shows in addition to reminding, pushing, encouraging me to keep going with my work plus has been an insightful art critic.

Website: www.wizeowlhandprints.com

Instagram: @wizeowlart

Facebook: Wize Owl Handprints

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutColorado is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.