Image & Myth

Contemporary artist Maura Allen winks at Warhol with her fresh, larger-than-like take on the American West.

Written by Jenn Thornton

“There’s a universal appeal to the mythology of the West that will always endure,” says Arizona artist Maura Allen, who is drawn to what the writer Wallace Stegner called “the geography of hope.” Which is to say, the West “is not a point on the map,” she contends, but rather “a feeling of possibility, a belief that anything can be dreamed and realized.” A native Westerner who grew up in Northern California, she comes by this thinking honestly. “Both the American West, as a broad canvas, and its more imaginative arteries within”—including her native stomping grounds of Silicon Valley—”speak to possibility. To dreams.” Creating work focused on the intersection of the real and romanticized West, Maura “naturally tips” toward the romanticized—a direct reflection of what she calls her “blue-sky optimism.” 

It also reflects her creative upbringing. One of eight kids raised in an arts and crafts-filled household, Maura says, “There was always something for my seven brothers and sisters to make, paint, draw or design. Outside and around the corner, meanwhile, was Stanford University, where the budding artist came face to face with Eadweard Muybridge’s A Horse in Motion, an iconic work of Victorian Age photography that would set her interest in the art form aflame. “Seeing that image as a young girl made a lasting imprint,” remembers Maura. She went on to purchase her first camera in high school—”with babysitting money!”—and was immediately captivated by black and white photography and the mysteries and magic of the darkroom. 

If A Horse in Motion helped pave Maura’s path to becoming an artist, it was another encounter, with an Andy Warhol exhibit in New York City, that would prove particularly foundational to the art she now creates. Taken with the Pop Art pioneer’s use of photography to create bold and graphic silk screen prints, Maura admits, “I was hooked.” She immediately enrolled in a course at UC Berkeley to explore this dynamic new form of storytelling and push its limits to make original work. “Over time,” she says, “I found my own way to combine different art forms—photography, print making and painting—together with my love of history to tell stories of the American West.” 

Having also previously studied about the power of myth and image to shape culture as a Latin/Classical Studies student at Stanford, the American West was a natural fit—geographically, mythically, and practically—for Maura to explore. “The West is wide and monumental, and I wanted to make larger work,” she says. In much the same way that a younger Maura would “piece together odd shapes to make a dress or a skirt,” she started to build images in her art studio. The result? “Cowboys and cowgirls that are larger than life.”

Upon learning that Maura is an artist who’s been called the “Warhol of the West,” one is then immediately compelled to classify her work. Is Modern West sufficient? Contemporary West with a twist? To hear her tell it, “It’s not ‘Old West’ or ‘New West. It’s simply The West.” Essentially, what is true to her. “With five sisters and two brothers, I’m naturally drawn to ranch families and how traditions are passed on—or not,” Maura says of her subject matter. “Ranching as a family business and a way of life are undergoing big changes today. While an alarming number of ranches are disappearing, those that remain will increasingly be led by women. I am interested in understanding what these shifts mean to the family, the environment, the community and to the broader culture of the American West.”

“With five sisters and two brothers, I’m naturally drawn to ranch families and how traditions are passed on—or not.”

To capture it all, Maura is on the road with her camera for good stretches of time. “When I visit a ranch or go to a rodeo,” the artist shares, “the first few hours are spent observing and absorbing, picking up the patterns of daily work and life.” She observes not only people and animals but shifts in light and changes to the landscape, as well. She returns to the ranches in different seasons, too—year after year. “The more familiar I am with the people and the place, the more the story of the West is revealed.”

Land is central to that story and the landscape a touchstone for Maura herself. “The openness and the drama of shifting weather and big, billowy cloudscapes are my first love,” she says. “There’s a maxim in photography—bad weather makes for great photos. It’s true. The Western light just after a storm is the perfect starting point for a story. Layer in the way of life that centers around community, of ranchers coming together for a branding or ranch rodeo, and that’s a bond and a pace that’s rare and alluring for me as a person, and as an artist.”

She is an artist who is continuing to explore artistically. Most recently with glassmaking. But when it comes to the West, “I want to evoke a connection that the past is always present, a feeling of going back in time and being rooted in today,” Maura says. “While my stage is the American West, that dynamic and emotional pull back and forward—forward and back—is not unique to place. It’s part of all our stories, and our lives.”

“I want to evoke a connection that the past is always present, a feeling of going back in time and being rooted in today.”

Photographs courtesy of Maura Allen