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My father, artist, actor, and author, Malcolm Sparky Watt, had an enormous influence on me and on my decision to pursue art as a career. It was his passing that inspired me to paint.
Beginning when I was very young, I wanted to be an artist, to paint with my dad, to go on his trips to the Indian reservations, and experience The West as he did. According to him, when I was only four or five years old, I would frequently brag that when I grew up, I was going to be a great artist, like my dad!
He did his best to make that happen and took us on many trips. In 1965 he took us on an extensive trip to the Indian Country, including Canyon De Chelly, Monument Valley, and the ruins at Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon, Keet Seel, Montezuma’s Castle and Tonto. It had a profound impact on me, but it would be another forty years before I was ready to paint about it.
After graduating from high school in Tucson, I postponed college and became a certified welder so that I could experience adventure on the Alaskan pipeline. I have yet to make it to Alaska, but along the way, I’ve had a lot of adventure on a very long and circuitous route!
One eight year stop on that route, was New Orleans, where for almost five years, I apprenticed with kinetic sculptor Lin Emery. That afforded me the amazing opportunity to meet and be influenced by some of the greats of contemporary art, including Tony Smith, Isamu Naguchi, Henri Moore, Kenneth Snelson, Arthur Silverman, George Rickey and Arnaldo Pomodoro. Unfortunately, it didn’t afford much else, so I decided to go into the life insurance business to finance my own studio.
