Bio:

Tobe Harvey was born and raised in Eastern Montana. Currently, Tobe Harvey works as an artist, and adjunct instructor at Spokane Falls Community College and Gonzaga University. He moved to Spokane after receiving his Master of fine arts degree from Washington State University in 2001 with an emphasis in painting. In addition, Tobe Harvey holds degrees in art from Montana State University-Bozeman and Northwest College in Powell, Wy. Since moving to the area, he has been featured in the Spokesman Review, and Spokane/Coeur d’Alene Living Magazine.

Statement:

“ When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality. ”

Henry David Thoreau, Walden

My body of work with reflects my personal experience, experiments with form, and transcendence. I grew up in Eastern Montana. As a result, I have spent incredible amounts of time traveling across the vast western landscape. The natural world is deep, colorful, and vigorous. I keep these properties in mind when I create artwork. Admittedly, I apply unnatural colors to the spaces. I have intentionally chosen contrasting intense colors to describe the landscape’s natural brilliance. Nature is dynamic, and I try to portray this through the placement of color, light, line, and shape. I have attempted to capture significant locations. All of the locations are from created from my memories. They are the times in which I have felt extraordinarily alive and filled with amazement, contentment, and solitude. As an artist, I am able to recreate the best moments of my existence through personal reflection, and the arrangement of visual elements.