Visual Voices

Five local creatives making their mark on the Valley’s art scene

By Kaylor Jones / Photos by Claudia Johnstone

The Valley’s creative spirit runs deep, with local talent making big waves on the national art scene. Here, meet five Arizona artists as they share insights into their process, where they find inspiration and what they’re up to next.

Bettina Chow

About 10 years ago, healthcare professional and nonprofit leader Bettina Chow tried her hand at clay for the first time.

“I was hooked the first time I sat at a potter’s wheel,” Chow says. “Clay connects you with the earth. It will thrill you as easily as it will humble you.”

Captivated by the medium’s blend of art, science and history, Chow eventually launched her own line of pottery (www.bettinachowpottery.com). Her small-batch, handmade designs in earthy color palettes bring organic textures to dinner tables, desks, bedrooms, and everywhere in between.

“I create pottery that will bring harmony and tranquility into the spaces we live and work in. I seek to balance chaos with calm, agitation with peace.”

Chow’s creations, which can be found at local markets and retailers like Market by Modern Nest and Local Nomad, are always in some way influenced by nature. “The colors and textures and forms captivate me and offer inspiration that always finds its way into my work. I’m the person who pockets rocks and is constantly stopping friends mid-hike to point out a cool cactus or leaf. I’ll get lost identifying a pile of moss and spend hours poking in tide pools.”

As she prepares for Desert Design Week (Oct. 8-15), Chow reflects on how humbled she feels by the positive reception to her work, and the rewards of watching pieces that speak to her find that same reception from others. Similarly rewarding is her experience with teaching, a throughline of her pottery career, whether she’s in a traditional classroom or creating a space for growth in a less formal setting.

“This is a 10,000-hour skill. The more you practice, the stronger your craft becomes,” says Chow, who, as a lifelong learner herself, advises all new potters to practice non-attachment, playing and failing along the way. “Teaching allows me time to play, and play keeps me in, as Carl Rogers called it, ‘the green, growing edge of life.’”

Anjuli Morse

A third-generation artist – and fourth-generation Arizonan – Anjuli Morse’s art is a product of a lifetime of creative influences.

But first, she spent 20 years in entrepreneurship, branding and visual design. One recession, a few startups and a global pandemic later, and the self-taught artist returned to her childhood passion for painting – and fell head over heels all over again.

Her work (www.anjulimorse.com) mixes mediums like acrylics, oil, pastels, watercolor, graphite and crayon to create sketchy and painterly abstract forms – “expressionist reveries,” as Morse calls them, “where the ebb and flow of color and form beckon a dialogue with the viewer.”

They’re designed to tap in to both the memory and imagination, says Morse, who at first viewed painting as a fulfilling way to spend less time in front of the computer. “When I was approached about selling a painting for the first time, I was actually really ambivalent about it. I worried it would change my ‘why’ – why I create art and who for.”

But selling that piece was indisputable proof that she was on the right path. Pair that with Morse’s first exhibition, which took place at last year’s Desert Design Week, and she was confident that every moment of her journey had been leading her back to a career in art. This year, she’ll return to Desert Design Week with pieces inspired by her new second home in Montana, having spent the summer finding muses in the wide open pastures, streams and wildlife.

“After I lost my grandmother and inherited her studio and body of work, relearning to paint, finding my new point of view and style, and exhibiting my work feels like a continuation of my family’s legacy,” she says. “Coming from a family of artists, I know that I am so incredibly lucky to have received the amount of positive feedback and support that I have at this point in my art career.”

Sage Aune

Freelance illustrator Sage Aune’s path to becoming a graphic designer was something of a winding road.

“I changed my major and switched schools three times. I even took time off from school and worked restaurant jobs,” says Aune, who knew she’d found her place when she enrolled in the Art Institute of Phoenix.

After graduation, she was ready to hit the ground running with an Instagram-based portfolio of colorful, personality-packed Adobe illustrations (@sagepizza) – which took off faster than she ever expected.

In her 10 years in design, Aune has worked with a wide variety of local businesses and international brands, including Dutch Bros, Vans, Lucasfilm, the Arizona Coyotes and Red Bull. Her often-humorous style is influenced by mid-century modern art, with a healthy dash of both desert style and the easy-breezy coastal lifestyle she soaked up while living in San Diego.

“My favorite projects have to be designing merch. I love seeing my artwork as a wearable piece or as a sticker. It’s a powerful tool for businesses – not only is it another way to bring in income, but your customers wear it out, and now you have free advertising.”

Currently, Aune’s passion project is working on personal artwork for her online shop (www.sageaune.com; Etsy and Society6, SagePizza). She’s also returning as a vendor at this year’s Adobe MAX conference in L.A. (Oct. 28-30) and furthering her tattooing education as she branches out into the world of fine line tattoos.

Even after all this time in the business, Aune says nothing beats seeing her art in the wild.

“One of my biggest pinch-me moments was walking into an Urban Outfitters and seeing phone cases with my designs. I brought my mom and we both shed a couple of tears! I think being vulnerable and willing to put myself and my artwork out there has really helped me connect to people. I’ve been trying my best to do that ever since.”

Max Hammond

To painter Max Hammond, abstract art boils down to intuition and impulse.

“You’d think it would be easy to make, but you’ve gone and left out the image, or the lyrics out of the song,” he says. “On the surface I’m using the same principles an artist would use to create a landscape or a figure, but I break those forms down so many times a viewer might never find them. I think it frustrates many people, but on the other hand a good abstract painting delights those who can see the hidden treasures.”

Hammond, who has an MFA in painting from Arizona State University, says his artistic process can be a bit convoluted. He starts each blank canvas without a plan, his medium of choice oil paint due to its slow drying time and its cultural and historical roots.

Hammond begins with thin layers of paint, searching for patterns which are most often painted over, “like an architect stacking all his drawings one on top of another.”

He adds, “I believe the instinct to break images down into colors and shapes served me well when I left the sheltered walls of the university and prepared me for early jobs to support the art habit, like cleaning the sludge from the bottoms of digesters at the sewage treatment plant.”

Now a widely-collected artist, Hammond (www.maxhammond.net), has a solo show opening this November at Scottsdale’s Bonner David Galleries, a premier fine art gallery with locations here and in New York. Titled Notes on Flying Things, his upcoming collection is inspired by the concepts of buoyancy and levity, as demonstrated by objects like clouds, rockets and zeppelins. His works aim to be a meditative refuge among the hustle and bustle of modern life.

“I hope people take the time to read the elaborate story I’ve written for them. I hope they’ll get up close and see how one color sits next to the other, how the edges of one shape lead you into the next,” Hammond says.

Kristin Ryan

When Kristin Ryan was in fourth grade, an artist attended her Girl Scout meeting – and Ryan decided art just wasn’t for her.

“As I was painting, the artist came up behind me and said, ‘Remember, the sky is all around you!’ I knew she was trying to tell me something, but I didn’t know what it was. I proceeded to paint the entire background of my painting blue. Everyone laughed at the painting, which became lovingly known as the Swimming Lions.”

Ryan’s career took her from marketing to finance to teaching, and after switching to a more art-focused school in 2016, she figured it was time to give painting another try and took supplies on a camping trip to Joshua Tree National Park.

“Four of us sat outside and painted plein air for 90 minutes and everyone was silent. I nearly jumped out of my skin when the first person spoke – I was hooked! I’ve been painting consistently since that trip.”

Now retired from public education, Ryan is proud to finally call herself a full-time artist with her own studio, Swimming Lions, A Fine Art Studio (www.swimminglionsafineartstudio.com). Her soft pastel artworks are inspired by the natural world, from bold, cacti-filled desert scenes to delicate hummingbirds mid-flight.

She’s come a long way since that childhood notion that art wasn’t her strong suit. Now she regularly participates in large art shows – her next is the Sedona Arts Festival (Oct. 11-12) – and thrills at the chance to introduce each artwork to the person it was meant for.

“I still remember the first time I sold a piece to a complete stranger. Two years later, she saw me at another show and bought more art! Equal to that was booking my first commission, delivering it to her house and seeing her reaction when it was displayed right where she’d envisioned it. When she booked a second commission, I felt that soul-level motivation that this was a career. I continue to feel that way every time I deliver a piece to someone’s home.”