Birth Year (-Died Year)
1952
Birth City
Colorado Springs
Current Location
Colorado Springs, CO
Occupation(s)
Artist, educator, writer
Biography
Pat Musick grew up in the house her father built at the edge of the Garden of the Gods. Her earliest artistic influences were her painter father, Archie (a Broadmoor Art Academy artist with local murals in the City Auditorium, Fine Arts Center, and Manitou Post Office); her ceramist mother, Irene; and the wildlife, plants, and landscapes of the Southwest. An introduction to the book arts at Reed College led her to postgraduate work researching early Irish manuscript calligraphy in London, England, where she first encountered enameling (glass fused to metal at high heat).
She returned to Colorado Springs in the 1980s, taught art at The Colorado Springs School for four years, and has been an adjunct art instructor (PPCC, CSU-Pueblo, UCCS) and freelance artist (enameling and mixed media) since then. Her work has been exhibited at museums and galleries across the United States and six countries; she has carried out many public and private commissions (including three glass-on-metal murals for Colorado’s Art in Public Places program) and served as Artist-in-Residence at Grand Canyon and Petrified Forest National Parks. She has served on the TOPS Working Committee and the Art Commission of the Pikes Peak Region.
Travels that inspire her work range from wilderness backpacking to viewing masterpieces in situ in Europe and Asia.
Awards/Honors
2011 - Artist-in-Residence, Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona
2007 - Artist-in-Residence, Rocky Mountain Land Library, Salida, Colorado
2006 - Artist-in-Residence, North Rim, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
1992 - Artist-in-Residence, Fairmont State University, Fairmont, West Virginia
Education/Training
M. Phil., Central School of Art & Design, London, England, 1980 - B.A., Reed College, Portland, Oregon, 1980 - advanced studies in: Enameling (Central School of Art & Design, London), Calligraphy/Letterforms (City & Guilds of London, Portland Art Museum), Paleography (King's College, London)
Published Works
Mountain Mother Goose (illustrator)(Fairmont State University Press, 2013)
"Worlds Among the Waters" (Camas, Winter 2010-2011)
"Troglodytes" (Whole Terrain, 2010)
"You Are Here" (monthly art & heritage column in The Colorado Springs Independ…
"Making Something Light Up" (Orion Afield, Winter 1999-2000)
"The View from Above" (The Colorado Springs Independent, November 1998)
"Infinite Nature: Architectural Enameling with Landscape Architecture" (Glass o…
"The Battle to Save the Burren" (Irish America, September 1991)
Celtic Calligraphy (co-authored with Liam Miller)(Dolmen Press, 1981)
Organizations
Enamelist Society - Summit Scribes - Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland - Palmer Land Trust
Speaker Topics
Irish manuscripts/early medieval Ireland - Calligraphy/letterforms - History of Writing - Selected art media (enameling) - Selected interdisciplinary discussions (bring together aspects of nature/natural history/environment with aspects of culture) - Regional art history/Broadmoor Art Academy/region art & artists in the Great Depression era