Artist Interview: John Giarrizzo

John Giarrizzo (b. 1955) was chosen as one of the Whitney Western Art Museum’s 2014 Artists in Residence at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming. Throughout his residence, Giarrizzo focused on the discipline of drawing and the practice of ‘learning from the masters’ by studying the western masters in the Whitney’s collection, with a special focus on the art of N.C. Wyeth.

Listen to Giarrizzo explain his artistic process, the importance of drawing, and what the term ‘artist’ means to him.

John Giarrizzo hails from Cleveland, Ohio and earned his MFA in painting from University of Boulder, Colorado. Giarrizzo has made his home in Cody, Wyoming since 1981, where he began teaching as a professor of art at Northwest College in Powell. He is the recipient of the Wyoming Governor’s Art Award in 2003, two Wyoming Arts Council Fellowships in Painting (1987, 1993) and served two Ucross Residencies (1987, 2004). His work is in the permanent collections of the Yellowstone Art Museum and the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.

To hear more on Giarrizzo’s beginnings as an artist and his work as a teacher, listen to his Whitney lunchtime lecture.