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ST. GEORGE — One man's craving to explore and paint diverse landscapes across the U.S. resulted in a cross-country road trip, complete with an SUV doubling as a mobile home and paint studio. He mapped his travels on canvas and ended up in Washington County, a place he now calls home.
Artist Steven Anzardo told St. George News that he grew up in Homestead, Florida. He said during his childhood, he never had the opportunity to travel and see different places. He only knew what summertime and fruit trees looked like but longed to see the diversity that other parts of the country offered.
"There were pictures of me drawing before I had memories of me doing that," he said "It was always something I wanted to do."
Anzardo said he was awkward growing up and found art to be a channel in which he was able to dig and create instead of being anxious about the external world. He said in high school he had amazing art teachers who made their entire livelihood with their art and showed him that it was possible.
With Florida being a fruit haven, Anzardo said he always loved trees and climbing them. Devoting more discipline to the mentality of the art, he started painting outdoors and became obsessed with painting landscapes.
"I'm playing all sorts of compositional games, like I wanted to tilt warm and pull the viewer this way, you know, soft spirals, curves and angles," Anzardo said. "Pretty shapes and pretty colors, that's my entire lifestyle, hunting down pretty shapes and pretty colors."
Anzardo said he had just gone back to school when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. He lost his job teaching painting classes — a job that he loved. He was ready to travel the world prior to the pandemic, so he saw this as an opportunity to head out across the country to witness the various landscapes and seasons he had never seen before.
