Art
Brian Howard's Art Portfolio
Art is life
Snowflakes, no two are the same. A conceptual art project by Brian Howard. One of kind, hand pressed monoprints from hand carved linocuts. Videos from sequencing digital images.
Snowflakes, no two are the same
Snowflake - 104 to 109 in open edition
Snowflakes, no two are the same.
Snow falls. Each flake is different. You can see it if you look closely enough.
The snowflake is not an object but an event.
Each begins as particulate anonymity, dust, until conditions of atmosphere compel it into form. Temperature and humidity do not merely shape it; they enact it. Nature does not mass-produce. It improvises.
No two are the same.
That’s not poetry.
That’s physics.
What emerges is not repetition but occurrence—singular, irreducible. This project extends that principle into the realm of action.
With blade and compass, I carve into linoleum, resisting the sterile perfection of machines. The carved linoleum is not a matrix for reproduction but a site of engagement. Each print comes out a little different. It has to. Pressure changes. Ink shifts. The hand is never the same twice. Every single print comes out with its own personality—its own noise, its own distortion. Every print is a gamble. The image mutates. Good. That’s where the truth is.
These aren’t copies. They’re performances.
The outcome refuses duplication.
The system won’t allow it.
Photographed and sequenced, these acts accumulate without resolving into sameness. They echo the fleeting storms that inspired them. A reminder that beauty lives in variance, not uniformity.
They remain discrete, finite manifestations of an ungraspable multiplicity. Like snowflakes themselves, each piece exists as a singular manifestation—brief, precise, and unrepeatable. Thus, the work becomes less about the image of the snowflake than about the condition it exemplifies: individuality under the pressure of impermanence and the complexity inherent in natural and creative systems.
Regarding the physical works, the following items are currently available:
- 8"x10" Prints: These are numbered, dated, and signed, and can be provided either framed or in acid-free sleeves.
- Signed Notecards: These include 4"x6" envelopes and are available in sequential six-packs.
Snowflake #2, 74 to 79 in open edition
Snowflake #3, 46 to 51 in open edition
Snowflake - 104 to 109 in open edition
Snowflake - 104
Snowflake - 105
Snowflake - 106
Snowflake - 107
Snowflake - 108
Snowflake - 109
Snowflake #2, 74 to 79 in open edition
Snowflake #2 - 74
Snowflake #2 - 75
Snowflake #2 - 76
Snowflake #2 - 77
Snowflake #2 - 78
Snowflake #2 - 79
Snowflake #3, 46 to 51 in open edition
Snowflake #3 - 46
Snowflake #3 - #48 in open edition
Snowflake #3 - 47
Snowflake #3 - 48
Snowflake #3 - 49
Snowflake #3 - 50
Snowflake #3 - 51
In 1916 Einstein's theories and mathematics predicted that "Gravity has waves" and it took mankind almost a century, 2015, to prove to ourselves that he was correct.
As a skier I've always "known" gravity has waves, after all, skiers are required to embrace gravity in pursuit of the fall line. Einstein's equation for gravity has two variables mass and acceleration or energy. Skiers are mass and we accelerate and thus we experience g-forces.
Gravity #1 - Set of 4 Framed Archival Prints, each frame 2' x 1' x 1"
Gravity #2 - Set of 4 Framed Archival Prints, each frame 2' x 1' x 1"
Stuffed on Sushi - bronze, 11' x 4' x 3' (1 of 3 - I made a mold of this actual casting and I consider this the Artist Proof)
October in Colorado, and the first snow begins to fall
Yes, each person's path to art is unique. I began with classes in black and white photography at Colorado Mountain College, and was lucky to attend a workshop in 1996 taught by David Hiser. His instruction was instrumental in giving me the confidence to continue following my heart with regards to art.
In 1997 I visited my parents in Chattanooga, TN and walked up a flight of stairs that changed my life. The stairs led to a wood carving school called Horsin' Around. Founded by Bud Ellis, the school taught how to make carousel horses. I enrolled for three weeks and stayed for three months.
Constructed of laminated basswood with a hollow body the animals there were built in the same manner as turn of the nineteenth century.
Bud wrote and published the book, Carousel Animal Carving Patterns & Techniques, and while I was at his school the photographer showed up. That is me on page 25, illustration 2-5, using a radial arm saw and is my first credit as a carver.
Titled, Shorty and Rufus, the horse and bobcat are alive and partners in tall tales. Rufus, is part of the latin name for bobcats, and Shorty is what I called horses as a child. My brother, Shawn, painted this.
Adding carvings to furniture, cabinets, and railings. Bas-relief, and in the round carvings were finished via fire, a la the Japanese wood finishing Shou Sugi Ban.
A Colorado Saguaro was one of my first sculpture commisions. It is made of pine logs bolted together.
Birds are a wonderful subject. Fence and bed posts, as well as ridge beams.
Regarding the previous...GO HAWKS! Hey I was a child in Washington State when the Seahawks became a franchise and as Brancusi famously said,"When we are no longer children we are already dead."...Um...excuse me I digress, back to the regularly scheduled program.
A wine rack inspired by a city sky scape. Two matching racks with grape clusters and leaves carving. This is in Frisco, CO and while the restaurant has changed over the years, the wine rack continues to be a central detail in the space.
A private commission where two trees that grew from one stump were cut down for fire mitiagtion.
When left to my own desires my art tends to towards the abstration. Wedding presents for friends or a study of skiing cast in aluminum.
Bears and horses have been popular themes.
Wood is a great medium for flying pigs.
Stuffed on Sushi was my entry in the 1999 No Man's Land International Wood Carving Competition in Breckeridge, Colorado. It won People's Choice and was purchased by the Upper Blue Elemantary School PTA and I would revisit this idea later in bronze.
Bronze casting books befuddled me until I received a scholarship to the Anderson Ranch in Snowmass Village, Colorado for a mold making and bronze casting workshop taught by John T. Scott.
Hasty, my first bronze sculpture, is of one of the original avalanche rescue dogs who worked at Copper Mountain. The sculpture is in Dillon, Colorado.
Half-Volley is a three foot tall bronze that captures a young boy about to kick a bouncing ball.
In 2004, I served as a Breckenridge Public Art Commissioner where we completed a redesign of the Council By-Laws by working with city staff. During those meetings I suggested how it would be nice to have a sculpture walk along the bike path. No brag just fact.
In 2008 I moved from Summit County to Aspen. It was nice to move down in elevation. My first job in Aspen was as a night cleaner at Aspen Highlands so I could ski every day.
The Aspen Art Museum commissioned me to create the Allora Calzadilla's Hope Hippo for the Restless Empathy Show in 2010. It was made of straw and clay and thankfully I have some very talented friends who helped me with this.
Snow is a wonderful medium for many forms of carving. SKIER'S JOKE!!!
The title,"On a rug sumo reads how to dance." is an anagram of the competition theme, "What goes around comes around." Our team, The Numb Bums, won first place at Wintersculpt in Aspen.
Stuffed on Sushi in winter and almost twelve feet long. This bronze is available for purchase. Inquires welcome.
The title of this sculpture can be found in the lyrics to a song I wrote. The song, Old Mose, is about a legendary bear that roamed Colorado in the 1800's. Hope you enjoy it. There is a link to a YouTube video of me performing the song on guitar at the bottom. Thank you for reading and hope your day is great.
Old Mose was an ursine of cinnamon tint,
Moseyed on it's way wherever it went.
King of the Grizzly's bestowed upon it's crown,
Old Mose cared not sniffing around.
Wandering hillsides eating berries it could grasp,
Old Mose found some bushes and decided on a nap.
It was 1884 and Old Mose ruled supreme,
Stuffed on sushi eyes heavy by a stream.
Boys don't you hunt that bear, Boys don't you hunt that bear
Boys don't you hunt that bear Boys don't you hunt, that bear
Do bears dream we wonder as the story makes a bend.
To a man Jack Ratcliff who met a grizzly end.
He had hunted Old Mose for years to come to no avail.
This year was different he was on the trail.
Stumbled on scat, tracked some tracks.
Jack now knew where that bear was at.
Trusty Old Henry was readly to go,
Jack crept in low and slow.
Boys don't you hunt that bear, Boys don't you hunt that bear
Boys don't you hunt that bear Boys don't you hunt, that bear
Awakened and startled thicket exploded with a bear,
Old Henry fired but the bullet barbered hair.
Jack had missed; So he swung his gun in vain.
Claws scalped the man and a bite hit a vein.
Jack lay broken, mutilated on the ground.
Breathing slow was the way he was found.
Old Mose had moseyed away leaving tracks in the sand.
Jack's last words uttered softly echoed the land
Boys don't you hunt that bear, Boys don't you hunt that bear
Boys don't you hunt that bear Boys don't you hunt, that bear