Bruce consulting with a client.

Avalon, Bruce, Donna, Veronica

Bruce with American Quilt

Bruce's debut Compact Disc:Listen to the Voice

Bruce and his 1949 Chevy work truck.

Many years ago I discovered the following quote by ?Abdu'l-Bahá, 1844-1921, one of the Central Figures of the Bahá'í Faith and adopted it as my purpose in life, including my purpose as an artist.

“The purpose of life is the acquisition of virtues.“

My Home

I was born in Ida Grove, Iowa on February 28, 1954. I graduated from Valley High School in West Des Moines in 1972. I’ve lived in a log cabin in Idaho, worked as a cook in Switzerland, and traveled in India. I currently live in Fairfield, a small town and emerging artist colony in southeastern Iowa, not far from the Mississippi. I appreciate the people of the Central States with their good hearts and valuable practical skills.

My Family

Mark Twain, who lived in Hannibal, Missouri 100 miles down the river from my home said, “Home is where, when you have to go there, they have to let you in.”

I have a great big love for my precious wife Donna, who grew up in San Francisco. She has many queenly qualities. Above all, she loves God more than she needs my approval. She’s a good mirror to me and a good art critic.

We are rich in daughters. Veronica is 16 and a good writer and singer and Avalan is 21 and a senior in the Graphic Design College at Iowa State. They are courteous, kind, and generous and both good students and good teachers. (Don’t get cocky when you read this girls, there’s always room for growth).

My parents, Russ and June, live in Des Moines near his mother, Ina, who is very much alive at 98. Two sisters and their families live in Des Moines and one in Stillwater, Minnesota. Connie is a highly respected independent Graphic Designer. Kristin is an RN and a good jewelry designer. Clarice teaches families to make music together and has a Doctorate in Women’s Global Development.

My Work

I am a full time contemporary oil painter, exhibiting in about 20 juried fine art festivals per year across the country.

My life has taken me in many varied direction in the 33 years since I graduated from high school. I worked for five years of sales and marketing positions, but most of my income, for many years, came from painting 375 houses. That was a vocation that allowed me to work seasonally and have a flexible schedule in order to develop my art. I learned about color theory and working with two-dimensional surfaces from painting houses.

Art has always been there in some form. I enjoyed woodworking as a child, singing, collaging, and sculpture. I sang in high school choir and select vocal groups and was accepted to sing in the Iowa All-State Choir in 1971. Through my college years I studied film history and experimented with photography, ceramics and sculpture and took some core courses in art history. I also began to play the guitar and to write songs.

For many years music was my primary artistic expression. I produced my debut compact disc, Listen To The Voice, in 1994 and toured the Midwest for four months. It was sold in Best Buy stores. You can order a copy and get more information on the CD on the ‘Contact‘ page. I taught myself how to play piano, hand drums, and percussion and still enjoy them.

I became interested in the history of beads in the early 1990s and began to collect them and to design earrings, necklaces and bracelets – one of those hobbies that, for several years, became a lifestyle.

By the mid 1990s I realized that I was not going to live forever, that I was closer to the death experience than the birth experience and that there wasn’t enough time to do it all.

I was standing in front of a Jackson Pollock painting in Chicago and suddenly all my life experiences concretized and my intuition said, “You can do this. You can authentically plug into the rich, vital history of American Abstract Painting.”

And here I am. And there are you. God bless the art buyers.

My Studio

My studio is a century old barn, 22’ x 20’ and 16’ high at the ridge beam, in our backyard. Our home was built in 1908 and the barn soon after to house animals and hay.

It is a work in progress. I have re-roofed it and have rebuilt three of the walls and most of the ceiling. I tore out half of the north wall and put in 80 square feet of new windows for northern diffused light (popular with the Impressionists). It is so ideal! I added a wood stove that brings me a lot of pleasure.

The last stage will add new wiring, insulation, sheetrock and paint and some exciting artistic details.

Style and Process

My artistic inspiration comes from modernist painters, artists and thinkers, innovative souls who have challenged, and continue to challenge, existing norms and dare to experiment with radical techniques, pioneering new expressive frontiers. At the same time, I deeply appreciate landscapes and seascapes and the discipline and specificity of the classical painters. As a result, my primarily abstract paintings often incorporate elements of spatial nature, combining imagination with a flavor of realism.

I strive to capture in paint the innocence and sweetness of childhood in balance with the efficacy and sophistication of adulthood. I call that balance ‘playful elegance’.