One of my all time favorite cowboy artists is a guy by the name of Bob Boze Bell. First he drew a cartoon called "Honkey Tonk Sue; Queen of Western Swing." It was for The New Times, an alternative weekly newspaper in Phoenix, full of scathing satire. I guess they were collected into graphic novels, but are very hard to get your hands on. He had an awesome, sleek, sexy, art deco sort of style. He also wrote a humor column. Later he became part of a morning DJ crew on KSLX FM "Radio for Men." All 60's-70's album rock. Today he is the editor/publisher of True West magazine for which he illustrates. He also does fantastic paintings of old gunslingers and such.
Of course, there's everybody's Phoenix hometown favorites, Bill Keane and his son Jeff. Sure, I'm more into Doonesbury myself, but come on- since 1956 Keane has been making it onto people's refrigerator doors and their hearts with his classic family gags.
Finally, my personal all time favorite John Nieto. I don't know if he's Hopi or Navajo and from Arizona or Zuni from New Mexico or Sioux from South Dakota- heck he could be a Kick-a-poo from Kansas for all I care. He's amazing. All I know is that I fell in love with his stuff in Scottsdale and have seen it in Sedona and if I ever get rich enough I want to own one. Being in a room with a Nieto holds the same thrill as Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso, or O'Keefe. His colors are SO vibrant and alive and contemporary- yet at the same time so evocative of the actual colors in nature all over the deserts of Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and New Mexico it is absolutely breath taking.
I'm tellin ya, go see if the painting I did of my student Megan wasn't influenced by Nieto; I SWEAR, I didn't even realize it at the time, but now that I've been looking at Nietos I can totally see it.
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