We recently connected with Colt Maule and have shared our conversation below.

Colt, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I have always been fond of water; particularly creeks, streams, and rivers. When I was a young boy growing up in the mountains of Southern California, one of my favorite things to do was to wander my way along a shoreline with my dog, while casting into the current in search for fish. I usually fished the local lake but I remember my favorite fishing experiences were always with the river in the Sierra Nevadas. The roar of a distant river or the babble of a creek would always rouse my curiosity; it was like an ancient song beckoning investigation. When I would wade and swim in the river, feeling the current against my body, I would wonder what it would be like to paddle a river, to navigate the current to wherever it went beyond the horizon and see the distant landscapes from the view only the river could provide. As I grew older, fishing did not hold the same appeal as it did for me when I was young man, but the excitement and mystery of the river never left my mind.
After what seemed like an entire lifetime of careers and nomadic wanderings, my wife and I settled down and started the next chapter of our lives in the small town of Pitkin near Gunnison, CO. It was there in Gunnison where I finally found my opportunity to paddle a river by becoming a whitewater river guide on the Taylor River. I was the oldest person in my class and while I was in basic training, rowing a boat and navigating the current for the first time, I accidentally said out loud, “I feel like I have been doing this forever”. My younger classmates in the boat giggled, but navigating the current of the river truly felt like a spiritual experience for me. I felt a raw connection to Mother Nature in a way I had never felt before. I was flooded with happiness and excitement; this was something humans had been doing since time immemorial and now it was my turn. The raw beauty, mystery, and excitement of wild rivers seeped into my being and now occupies my mind and I have been a passionate paddler when I find snippets of time and an advocate ever since. My most memorable trips in the backcountry are river trips, where every bend in the river holds a new landscape to be enjoyed, where I feel like I am in true harmony with the wild current that surrounds me.
While my wife and I have lived here in Pitkin, we made our living by providing a tree service for the valley. As residents and visitors alike have seen, many Colorado forests have suffered devastating losses of tree life from spruce, pine, and fir bark beetles regenerating at prolific rates due to recent years of increased annual temperatures. My job as a sawyer was to manage the surrounding forests and remove these towering tree bones to mitigate for wildfire. Most of this dead wood was turned into firewood to heat our off grid home at nearly 11,000 feet, but as we processed the wood I couldn’t help to notice the stark beauty I was handling between my hands. A hardened chunk of life defined by textured bark, elegant curves, hues of color, and stories told in grain. One day while splitting our winter firewood I said to my wife, “I wish I could turn some of this beautiful wood into a form of art instead of throwing it all into the fire”. So I did.
When I started creating my art I wanted those same feelings and emotions I had discovered while navigating the river to be ingrained within the images in my work. I also desired for my artwork to be very unique and original to me, which allowed me to create things that I had never seen before, aside from the glimpses in my imagination. Felled trees with unique characteristics were set aside and I milled them into live edge slabs, fed them through a planer and gave them a fine sanding. This was to be my canvas. The first time I burnt on these newly slabbed pieces of wood I scorched in a river. It was as if the wood wanted the wandering lifeblood of a river seared into the stoic life story of it’s grain. Two souls bound as one by the harmony of their coexistence, living together once again. This process felt so natural I couldn’t stop; I could hear the rush of the water and with each meander in the river my mind was navigating my boat with the current, each contour line I would imagine the wondrous terrain surrounding me. I created a living river.
In June of 2023, I had my first art exhibit and most meaningful project I have worked on in my life. I teamed up with local businesses and non profit organizations to create an educational-based art exhibit celebrating wild rivers. I called my solo art exhibit ‘Arteries of the Earth’ and I poured my heart and soul into it. I had 137 pieces of art filling three separate gallery spaces within our local Gunnison Arts Center. The photo, watercolor, and mixed media exhibit was up for one month educating visitors about the importance of clean water, wild rivers, dam removal, irrigation, public land, water rights, conservation, stewardship, and responsible recreation. I wanted to bring awareness to the fact that rivers are not a just resource, rivers are the life source.
The life source of clean water, untamed rivers, and wild places are still an afterthought to many in this industrial, technological, and consumer-driven society. In the distraction of everyday life, many of us have forgotten that what we now call the wild, used to be home. To myself and many others, the wilds are still home; a place where we can find inspiration from nature, a place where we can find ourselves and a tether to reality. As a human being I feel like most of my life is spent unintentionally destroying so I can exist in this modern society. Creating art helped nudge my world and my mind towards a better coexistence and understanding. This inspired me to share my story and art with an audience who wants to make a difference; with the concern of stewardship and conservation of untamed and wild rivers, the Arteries of the Earth.
I could not have created this art exhibit if it were not for the culmination of life experiences that led me to this point in my life. I have a deep appreciation for our wild lands and I am happy to share that story and advocacy through my artwork. The Arteries of the Earth art exhibit kickstarted my career as an artist, and after my installation I was invited to attend the prestigious Crested Butte Art Festival and I have been creating art ever since.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I think I was born an artist, it merely took me many years to figure out it was my calling and how to make it work for a career.
Most of my life feels like a blur, like a fog of constantly trying to catch up with a life speeding forward. Perpetually feeling like I am running out of time to live a fulfilling life. But there are moments in between that stand out in stark contrast. Moments or periods of time where I can account for every action and every detail because I was passionately enthralled with what I was doing. I was paying attention to life, living in the moment, occupying eternity. These periods of time for me always align with adventurous travel, exploration, times of great creativity, passionate love & friendship, personal growth, and times of hardship and pain.
With the exception of the latter, my wife and I have been chasing these defining moments together for more than a decade. Years ago we both decided to leave behind our “civilized” lives and careers and instead celebrate and practice the art of “feralism”. When we are not living with the elements at our off grid, humble abode that sits at 10,700’ in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, we have roamed around North America living out of a truck, van, RV, trailer, or tent for months or years at a time. Our legs and feet have carried us over mountain peaks and through sinuous slot canyons. Our hands have clung to rope, stone, trekking poles, handlebars, oars, paddles, and reins as we have rappelled, hiked, biked, paddled, climbed, or rode into some of the most remote and beautiful places still found on this continent. The delicate natural majesty our eyes have witnessed is absolutely astounding and the personal freedom and humble confidence we have found while exploring these wild reaches has been truly inspirational and blessed.
Art was born of these wild adventures, I couldn’t help it, there was no other direction to go. I have always had a deep respect and reverence for wild lands, wild rivers, wild animals, and the wild experiences that come with them. I enjoy the focus and mental clarity of creating art and living in the moment. I crave the freedom, the drive. My camera captures the shadows of clouds racing over an intricately detailed canyon wall. My pallet knife traces the outlines of jagged mountain peaks. My brush dipped in river water brings a watercolor painting to life. Tree slabs come alive with contour lines burned into their grain. Each one is an inspired creation to hang upon your wall as a reminder of all of the wild experiences that exist beyond your front door.
A few years ago I decided to make it my life purpose to create artwork and capture photographs celebrating the conservation and preservation of our wild lands, wild rivers, and wild animals. Without the forethought of conscious humans who came before me and understood the importance of protecting wild places, I wouldn’t be presented with the wonderful opportunity to view these pristine landscapes sculpted by eons of time. I would be unable to enjoy moments of quiet solitude or the ability to seek enlightenment from something unmolested by the hands of humans. I am thrilled and eternally grateful that protected wild places exist where one can find themselves and become part of this astounding natural world we live in. I wholeheartedly and genuinely hope my artwork will evoke the viewer and collector to protect that in which inspired the artwork, Wilderness.
My art is inspired by backcountry trips deep in the Wilderness and the contoured maps that guided me there. I enjoy combining the elements of the natural landscape with the contoured lines that symbolize the terrain. Symbolic elements of mountains, canyons, and rivers with the topographical lines that represent that landscape define many of my creations. Similar to many artists, each piece of art I create has a purpose and a story. There is an adventure behind every photo captured, there is life and time found within each tree I harvest to make my art or frames with, there is a purpose within every brush stroke; there is acute focus and concentration, intent, energy, meaning, the memories of moments in my life that inspired that creativity in the first place. When creating art, my goal is always to be original and true to myself. I think one of the most special things about art is that it is simply the outer manifestation of the artist’s soul.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I feel one of the most important things on this planet that we need to constantly focus our attention on is the continuation of preservation of our wild places. Without the forethought of conscious humans who came before us and understood the importance of protecting wild places, we wouldn’t be presented with the blessed opportunity to view these pristine landscapes sculpted by eons of time. We would be unable to enjoy moments of quiet solitude or the ability to seek enlightenment from something unmolested by the hands of humans. I am thrilled and eternally grateful that protected wild places exist where one can find themselves and become part of this wonderful natural world we live in.
Somewhere in all of us is the intrinsic need to connect with the non human world. Experiencing true wild places is absolutely inspirational. We have our primal roots within our grasp during these simple moments. We are reminded who we are, and what we truly need to feel alive. Understanding that these wild places were specifically set aside for the benefit of all, where the Earth and its community of life are untrammeled by modern society, where a person is a visitor who does not remain, is vital in today’s consumptive and ever expanding society. Remembering that these places are are still under constant threat of mining, logging, development, agricultural runoff, invasive species, dams, over-recreation, and pollution is utterly sobering. The wilderness needs to stay wild.
I want to lead by example and my mission as an artist is to create timeless pieces of art from as much reclaimed and repurposed materials as possible that celebrate these wild places. My goal as an artist is to capture your attention and ignite your emotions with original art that is distinct and one-of-a-kind but also relatable in a way where the story is understood and the stewardship is now passed onto you.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I have done many, many things in life to earn a dollar. I have been a dishwasher, a landscaper, a tree feller, a hamburger flipper, a firefighter, a photographer, a filmmaker, an EMT, a nurse’s assistant, a flower delivery driver, a mine reclamation surveyor, a construction worker, a boat dock attendant, an apothecary, a professional mountain biker, a video store clerk, a heavy equipment operator, a bicycle mechanic, and for a few hours during a desperate day in my life, I was even a telemarketer…… With the exception of a few, these were all jobs that I would only do if you paid me. Being an artist has been different; it is truly a privilege to just be at this point in my life. Most people who have done the things I have done for work eventually turn off the creative side of their brain, autopilot becomes a necessity and I understand. Luckily, throughout my life I have been able to keep that creative spark kindled enough to provide a bonfire of creativity at this time of life when I am ready to ignite it. Creating art isn’t a job, it is Art, and the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is the freedom, creativity, and the empowering mindset of endless possibilities.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.terriblemountain.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/terrible.mountain/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/terrible.mountain/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Terrible.Mountain

Image Credits

Portrait: Tim Brown Photography
Art Photos: Colt Maule