This issue’s cover is called “Out of the Woods,” and was painted by Kevin Specht, a self-taught artist who lives in Denver, CO. He actually wasn’t interested in art until his late twenties, and didn’t become serious about it until approximately two years ago, when he quit his job in sales and began painting full-time.

Since then he has had solo shows at the Valkarie Gallery in Lakewood, CO, and the Nassima Landau Art Space in  Tel Aviv, Israel. He’s also been part of group exhibitions at the ninth annual Supersonic Invitational, Spoke Art, San Francisco, and the Blue/Green Environmental at the Spark Gallery in Denver (where he was awarded first place).

Specht describes his artwork as a transformation of memories, reality and make believe into a visual narrative. He combines images taken from photographs, cinema, literature, and his imagination, to produce hallucinatory atmospheric landscapes using acrylic, oil, pastel, and gouache pigments. “I’m an avid reader and some of my work reflects literary scenes from whatever novel I happen to be reading at the time.”

He describes his landscapes as existing between representation and partial abstraction, creating an otherworldly environment enhanced with vivid colors and inverted tones. “The suggestion is that a transformation is taking place. Within these shifting landscapes is an exploration into human relationships.”

More of Specht’s art can be viewed at his website: https://www.kevinspecht.com.