Spencer Simons was born and raised in Miami, Florida graduating from Florida International University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in painting, with minors in photography, printmaking, and ceramics. Many cross-country trips and travels along the coasts have inspired some of his works, while others are based on places experienced while backpacking in the nation’s parks.

Spencer’s background in photography has influenced his realist painting style, while also emphasizing the elements of time and framing. For him the blank piece of paper or primed canvas is like an empty viewfinder of a camera, the frame around the image. A successful photo composition should not need cropping, so the photographer becomes keenly aware of the edges while framing the shot. This rudiment naturally carries over into his paintings.

Placing an object at the edge of a painting to create tension or increase its importance is a favorite technique Spencer uses. “Tilt” the camera and the angle determines where and how the observer is located in the image. The viewer of the artwork then becomes a participant in the painting, an actor in the action. Spencer’s pencil drawing “Got’cha” is an extreme example of camera tilt with the viewer falling off a horse.

“Most of my current paintings have one or two reoccurring elements. I am intrigued by how the forces of nature — water, wind, and, more importantly, time, alters man made objects. These forces when applied, gives an inanimate thing a life all of its own.
One element is rust. At birth, metal is a pristine media to be hammered, forged, altered, to suit a person’s needs. And like the human hand that shapes it, metal is destined to age, rust and return to the earth.

The other element is wood. Farmhouses, buildings, and other structures once lived in or utilized by humans, now abandoned. I’m exploring the relationship between wood in its natural state, a living thing, and wood that has been cut, planed and nailed together to serve a purpose. After the inhabitants have left, some buildings become nothing more than an empty shell. A body of wood, decaying.  Sometimes, when I find a special place, I can hear a lingering echo, feel a presence from the departed. I sense the building’s purpose; I feel its “soul”. It calls out, “Remember me.” Be it an old house or rusting truck, I choose the subject for a painting if I hear this plea.”

New to Montana Spencer rejoices in his new backyard, filled with a fresh, abundant collection of old buildings and other treasures yet to be discovered. Subjects for future paintings that should keep him busy for a long time.

More of Spencer’s work can be found on his website www.spencersimons.com as well as at 406 Brewing (101 East Oak St) during the month of September, with a reception Saturday Sept 3rd from 6-8pm.