We were lucky to catch up with Don Quade recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Don thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

My parents have always been supportive of my choice to pursue art. When I was very young my mom had read somewhere that to encourage children’s creativity instead of giving them coloring books where drawing within the lines is the goal, it’s better to provide blank sheets of paper and encourage kids to use their imagination and draw without guidelines. I think there is a lot of truth to that concept. One of my earliest memories is sitting in the backseat of the car on a 3 day cross-country road trip from the tip of Texas to the upper peninsula of Michigan. We were on our way to visit my grandparents and I had nothing to entertain myself but a ream of blank paper and brand new box of crayons – the good kind in the jumbo box with all the colors! I drew pictures of barns and cows and fields of sunflowers I saw looking out the window. I drew a picture of a giant teepee at a rest stop we passed in New Mexico and my grandparents hung it on their wall. I think the most important thing a parent can provide their children is support. And unconditional love. Both go a long way and can compensate for most material things. When it was time for me to go to college, I recall for the first time ever not feeling 100% supported when my very pragmatic father thinking I should choose a more ‘practical’ major than fine art and painting. We did not argue much back then but we did over that issue. I know now that it was out of love and concern and we both ended up compromising. It was decided I would be a Graphic Designer, I think he saw it as the more disciplined form of art that would get me off his payroll and I was happy to be moving away and being on my own. I figured I would change majors later, but I really loved it. My dad was right, per usual. I was able to successfully support myself after graduation as a Graphic Designer. I did not return to painting until a little later in life. My paintings, however, are heavily influenced by my graphic design sensibility and my experiences as a designer and I really cannot imagine it happening any other way.

Don, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My wife and I had just moved into to the house that we are in today and I went to the alley to throw something away and discovered in the dumpster a big unused canvas that someone had discarded. I brought it home and using house paint and a picnic table in the backyard as an easel, I painted it and once it was dry, I hung it above the fireplace, My wife had been out for the day and when she returned, I asked her what she thought of the painting which I said I had found at an estate sale. She absolutely loved it. She is not one to mince words or tell you what you want to hear so I knew it was true and she did not initially believe me when I told her that I had painted it. I went to remove the painting but she refused to let me take it down and it is still hanging in the same spot to this day. It wasn’t until a year later after much encouragement from my wife and compliments on this painting from people who saw it hanging in our house that I went and bought proper materials and started painting again. One thing led to another and after a couple years I had gallery representation and was outgrowing the small room I was using as my studio. I converted the detached garage (which at one time was a barn and has a lot of character) into a proper artist studio.

I grew up in El Paso, Texas. This is important because the desert is something that influences my artwork to this day. I find the colors and tones inspirational and the clarity of light in the southwest to be unparalleled to anywhere else I have travelled. The 2 primary focuses and influences for my paintings are my background in graphic design and my strong interest in nature and gardening. My love of nature, and gardening, has led me to explore the shapes, textures, colors and all the aspects of the organic form and to transform these elements into paintings. My goal when painting is to create a sense of feeling that transcends more than the visual but engages the sense of memory as well. The recollection of closely examining the fluctuations of color in a flower petal, or the way lichen spreads across a rock, these simple yet beautiful details of nature are gifts that inspire and motivate my love of painting and the portrayal of the simple pleasures that nature provides.
I also like to experiment with color combinations and contrasting organic forms and hard-edged graphic shapes. Additionally, I have recently been working with different senses of proportion and perspective in order to achieve impactful compositions that intrigue and evoke positive emotions.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

“Comparison is the thief of joy.” This quote is often credited to Theodore Roosevelt and is something I remind myself of all the time. I associate with many artists and creatives and I recognize that we are all on our own paths. I sincerely believe that one of the most self destructive behaviors is comparing what we are doing to what other people are doing. For me the true bellwether of success is personal happiness. The unhappiest I have been during my art career was quite a few years ago when I had 7 galleries around the country and in another country representing me simultaneously. The stress of keeping work relevant and not falling into a routine of feeling like a machine just churning out work for profit was grueling. Well meaning people also have different measures for success and often time it has to do with money and sales. After I open a show it’s not uncommon for people to ask, “How was your show, did you sell a lot?” My measure for success for a show for me is if I raised my own personal bar and created the most beautiful paintings I could paint and did I have fun doing it? The answer is almost always yes. The lesson I have learned is to not let others project their measurements of success onto you and to never compare ones own path to the path of others.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I think the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is to be able to bring beauty into people’s lives through my paintings. I once witnessed a woman start to get teary eyed in front of one of my paintings in the gallery and when I asked her if everything was okay, she replied that my painting was the only thing during her entire day that had given her a sense of peace. I was flabbergasted and thought a lot about that statement. I truly believe that art has the power to heal.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.donquade.com
• Instagram: milehighguy303