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While Joshua Been is a California native, born in San Bernardino County in 1974, he was raised in the foothills of Denver, Colorado. And although his childhood was filled with mornings of cartoon watching and cereal chomping, he had no shortage of outdoor adventures that cultivated his appreciation for the natural world. This proclivity remained with him throughout high school and an active duty enlistment in the US Army. Joshua then went on to pursue his BA in Fine Art at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado.
As a Magna Cum Laude graduate from this small liberal arts college, Joshua was never idle. While snowboarding competitively on any free day, he also stayed busy performing in his college theatrical productions, and gained an appreciation for character and gesture that is reflected in his figurative work. The San Juan Mountains offered the perfect setting for a young artist and Been's work undoubtedly benefited from his diverse college experience, as well as from the expertise and inspiration of his professors.
After graduation, Been relocated to the Los Angeles area where he worked for several years in the entertainment industry as an animator for Cartoon Network, Titmouse Animation, Disney TV, and Midway Games. Soon, Been longed for a more liberating form of expressing himself through creating artwork. He is captivated by the solidarity of natural scenes. On the canvas he strives to capture, for example, the meditative feel that is exuded by a deserted beach or the reflection in a pool of water. Additionally, he finds inspiration in the gritty aspects of ecology and geology, a tendency that manifests itself in his intimate portrayals of rock formations, tree roots and other structures. Whatever Been's subject matter may be, he always aims to reveal and accentuate the beauty he sees in his everyday life. Been now lives and paints and teaches in Salida, Colorado, a place known as the 'Heart of the Rockies'.
