American Fork man finds career in art after 30 years in marketing

Editor's Note: KSL.com does a weekly feature on artists in the community. If you have a painter, sculptor, musician or creative genius in mind, feel free to email your submission to fjolley@ksl.com. Please include a contact email for the artist, if available. AMERICAN FORK — Stewart Anstead’s decision to make art full-time was preceded by more than 30 years working in marketing and a lifetime of improving his craft. These days, he fuses his art with his charity work for youth.

Anstead, now of American Fork, grew up in art-filled Chico, California.

“Chico was an arts community. It rubbed off on you,” he said. “The music programs in town were excellent. The first serious urban art murals I ever saw were painted around campus and downtown and were all made within a year’s time. They were so cool, so creative, and were part of the wallpaper of my life.”

In high school, he made his first attempt at art in his sophomore art class — an attempt he describes as “horribly bad.” He worked hard on the watercolor of sailboats in a bay, which didn’t turn out looking anything like he’d hoped.

“I was frustrated and my teacher, Mike Simpson, knew I needed some guidance,” Anstead said. “...He offered a suggestion. That suggestion was to immerse the whole thing in water and scrub off the paint and try it again. I did that. Then, with a little more guidance, he helped me consider some painting techniques and I did that and it turned out OK. Not great, but I wasn’t embarrassed with it anyway. ...Mr. Simpson and our other art teacher, Mr. Ramsden, became mentors to me and gave me hope that I could create decent art. Everyone ought to feel the encouragement from a teacher or mentor at least once in their life. It really helped to change mine.”

Encouraged by his job in design at a printing shop in high school, Anstead headed to Utah to attend Brigham Young University to study advertising. While still in college, he talked himself into a job at an advertising agency in Orem, where he worked for the next seven years.

“In my career, I worked around wonderful artists who were also fine artists, as well. We talked art from time to time,” he said. “A couple of them went through the Bachelor of Fine Arts program at the Y and I would hear horror stories of ultra-demanding professors so I stayed away from the art programs. We got hammered in the design classes I had anyway, and I knew I didn’t need more confirmation that I wasn’t good at painting. But I always remembered that I could scrub away my weak attempts and start my work over to get better. I always expected I would try to return to painting just to see where I could go with it.”

In 2000, Anstead started painting to make money and for the last five years, has done so full time. Painting scenes from sports, aspen trees, pop icons and vintage motorcycles, he uses bold color with a preference for strong lines — a nod to his design background. Anstead has worked with several charities — the 5 Star Legacy Foundation, Now I Can Foundation, American Indian Services, and Sons of Baseball Foundation — in various capacities including director of the 5 Star Legacy Foundation and creating paintings for donors for the others.

“There is a natural fit, it seems, between art and charities that helps donors receive something as a nice token of their financial support,” Anstead said. “Over time, I have found that there are way too many worthy causes out there, so you have to be selective about the ones that fit best with where your passion lies so you can be involved a bit more as time permits.”

For Anstead, people’s reaction to his work brings him joy. When people look at art, including his, he said, they bring with it their own personal story and perspective.

“And that’s the thing; you can create a piece, but once it has been produced, it stops belonging to you,” he said. “Everyone else will see it in his or her own way, with a viewpoint that is just as valid as I may have had when I created the work.”

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