The intricate nature of communication presented a significant challenge for selecting a cover image for the August special issue dedicated to "Conversations." However, former Visuals Editor Roberto "Bear" Guerra had a clear vision, identifying artist Armando Veve, a regular contributor to High Country News (HCN), as the ideal choice. For years, Guerra and the editorial team had aspired to feature Veve’s distinctive artwork on the magazine’s cover, and the confluence of the "Conversations" theme and Guerra’s departure from the masthead provided the perfect opportunity. Veve embraced the assignment with his characteristic enthusiasm and unique artistic style, masterfully depicting the multifaceted nature of dialogue through a whimsical array of unlikely conversationalists engaged in tense yet amicable exchanges, while also thoughtfully incorporating moments of convivial silence. His composition effectively maps the dynamic ebb and flow of a meaningful back-and-forth.

Based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Veve’s artistic journey recently intersected with the HCN office in Paonia, Colorado, when he visited a couple of years ago during a road trip to a Telluride art gallery. This encounter offered a glimpse into his creative process and his broader approach to art-making, which he generously shared in a subsequent discussion.

Veve’s artistic practice is deeply rooted in a meticulous and layered process, where he often begins with graphite on paper, drawn to its immediate connection with writing, viewing drawing itself as a form of visual storytelling. His works are built up in sedimentary layers, combining graphite, watercolor, and colored pencil. For the cover illustration, digital tools were employed to add color efficiently given the publication timeline, yet Veve emphasizes that the hand still guides these digital layers, with the drawing and color ultimately merging on the printed page, which he considers the final artwork in the context of magazines and newspapers.

Inspiration for Veve is not confined to grand artistic pronouncements; it is found in the everyday processing of the world. Drawing serves as his method for centering himself, making sense of chaos, and giving form to his inner thoughts, allowing him to sift through them for meaning. He actively seeks inspiration by striving for greater awareness of his surroundings, noticing details that might otherwise be overlooked. This conscious effort includes reducing his reliance on digital devices and fostering more direct engagement with people. His practice of taking long walks, sometimes with the intention of capturing images and other times simply to clear his mind and stimulate circulation, plays a crucial role. More recently, Veve has been leaning into memory rather than solely relying on reference materials, an approach he finds invigorating and one that opens up new possibilities within his art. For Veve, drawing is a continuous conversation with the past and the future, an invitation for closer observation and novel ways of thinking. It is also, in its essence, a visceral act akin to scratching an itch, peeling back surfaces and digging deeper in search of symbolic narratives.

The spirit of Veve’s earlier collaborations with HCN, particularly his monthly illustrations for the "Heard Around the West" column, resonates strongly within the cover art, hinting at the presence of familiar characters for alert readers. Veve fondly recalls his time illustrating for "Heard," appreciating the curated stories that were often strange and humorous, such as the man who propelled a peanut up a mountain with his nose or the canine named Ghost that left home to live among coyotes. Indeed, keen observers of the cover may discover subtle "Heard" easter eggs, including Bo the Bear and Ghost, characters who first appeared in that column. Veve enjoys the practice of remixing older pieces and establishing connective threads between them, revitalizing recurring motifs and characters. He even notes that his cat frequently makes appearances in his work, a testament to his tendency to weave personal elements into his evolving artistic universe. He views his body of work as a single, interconnected world where each new story offers fresh subject matter and themes to explore, all orbiting a shared source of creative energy. His visual vocabulary, comprising objects, symbols, and motifs used to convey ideas, functions like characters in a play, appearing when they best serve the narrative or simply to indulge a moment of creative playfulness. He has a particular fondness for characters that seem out of place, removed from their original contexts, a theme of displacement that serves to defamiliarize the familiar. This approach stems from a surrealist impulse, as fragmentation and cross-pollination feel like more accurate metaphors for the world as he understands it.

Veve’s distinctive style, characterized by its unique blend of humor and whimsy, is a reflection of a lifelong fascination with images that tell stories, dating back to his childhood experiences with Disney animations like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and the comics that filled his home. As a child, he was captivated by "I Spy" books and the creative world-building involved in constructing elaborate, often perilous, virtual environments in The Sims, which fostered a sense of discovery and narrative agency. He perceives a democratic quality in this type of engagement, where the viewer is empowered to chart their own path through an image. This fascination extends to maps and cross-sections, which he admires for highlighting the interconnectedness of all things. Veve revisits his works, building them in layers and refining them with the deliberate precision of a writer editing a draft. He finds a unique beauty in the stillness of a drawing, an almost absurd act of prolonged focus on a single subject in our fast-paced world, achieved through the direct, ancient stroke of a pencil. This practice connects him to a primal element, literally drawing with the earth in the form of graphite and clay encased in cedar. This connection to a long tradition of human-made art feels increasingly precious in an era influenced by artificial intelligence and commercial pressures. His work echoes the earliest cave paintings, illuminated manuscripts, WPA murals, and the imaginative realms of pulp science fiction.

Regarding "style" as a term, Veve views it as a somewhat limiting focus on surface, preferring to think of it as a tangible manifestation of voice, akin to speech patterns or habitual movements. Humor is a vital component of his art; if an image elicits laughter from him, he typically pursues that creative impulse. Whimsy, he believes, is a potent force that inspires free association and disrupts familiar structures. The humor in his work often arises organically from the interactions within a piece or through associations the viewer makes, becoming a vehicle for that emergent levity.

For the cover illustration, Veve drew inspiration from the challenge of visually representing conversation itself. His initial thought process led him to consider maps as literal depictions of interconnected webs, imagining a "landscape of conversation" as the driving conceptual framework for the entire piece. He drew upon medieval paintings and maps for their stacked sense of space and their ability to guide the viewer on a journey of discovery within the artwork.

The most challenging aspect of visually depicting conversation, Veve explains, lies in striking a delicate balance between inclusion and omission. Creating sufficient negative space and moments of visual rest between elements is a constant artistic endeavor. He likens this to good conversation, where periods of silence are essential for building meaning. His initial sketches for the cover were too crowded and overwhelming, prompting him to reduce the scale of elements and open up the composition. This strategic approach provides viewers with literal paths through the artwork and incorporates moments of quiet contemplation, exemplified by the poignant image of a flower mourning fallen stumps.

Among the diverse cast of characters populating the cover, Veve expresses a particular fondness for the lone prairie-chicken, appreciating its seemingly bewildered expression. His work can be further explored on Instagram at @armandoveve and on his website, armandoveve.com.