The quest to visually represent the multifaceted nature of communication for a special August issue proved to be a significant artistic undertaking, a challenge that former Visuals Editor Roberto "Bear" Guerra met with a specific vision. Guerra had long admired the distinctive style of Armando Veve, a contributing artist with a history of insightful work for High Country News, and saw him as the ideal choice to bring the concept of "Conversations" to life. This particular issue marked a poignant moment, as it was also the final one to feature Bear’s name on the magazine’s masthead, adding a layer of personal significance to the collaboration. Veve embraced the assignment with his characteristic enthusiasm and a unique artistic sensibility, crafting an image that masterfully depicts the intricate dance of dialogue. He populated the cover with a whimsical array of unexpected conversationalists, their interactions portrayed as both tense and amicable, while thoughtfully incorporating moments of convivial silence that are equally crucial to the rhythm of a meaningful exchange. This approach effectively mapped the often winding and unpredictable terrain of a robust back-and-forth.

Although Veve is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the High Country News office in Paonia, Colorado, had the pleasure of hosting him a couple of years prior during his road trip to a Telluride art gallery. His thoughtful insights into the creation of the cover image and his broader artistic philosophy offer a window into his creative process, inviting readers to connect with his work. Veve’s artistic practice is deeply rooted in a meticulous, layered approach, primarily utilizing graphite on paper. He cherishes the immediacy of graphite, drawing a parallel between drawing and writing, often conceptualizing his visual creations as a form of pictorial script. His drawings evolve organically, akin to sedimentary deposits, beginning with graphite, then incorporating watercolor and colored pencil. For the "Conversations" cover, digital tools were employed for the color application, a necessary adaptation due to time constraints, yet the hand-drawn foundation remained paramount. Veve views the printed page as the ultimate realization of his art, particularly within the context of publications like magazines and newspapers.

In his daily life, Veve seeks inspiration by actively engaging with the world around him, striving for heightened awareness and a deeper appreciation for often-overlooked details. He describes drawing as his primary method for processing the world, a means of centering himself, making sense of chaos, and giving tangible form to his internal thoughts, allowing him to sift through them and identify what holds value. His practice involves long walks, some dedicated to photography, others simply for mental recalibration and physical invigoration. Increasingly, he finds himself drawing from memory rather than relying heavily on external reference materials, an approach that has proven to be creatively stimulating and has unlocked new avenues of expression on the page. For Veve, drawing serves as a continuous dialogue with both the past and the future, encouraging closer observation and fostering novel ways of thinking. It is also, he admits, a primal urge, much like scratching an itch, a process of peeling back layers and delving deeper in pursuit of symbolic meaning or narrative resonance.

The spirit of Veve’s earlier contributions to High Country News, particularly his monthly illustrations for the "Heard Around the West" column, is palpably present in the cover artwork, and astute readers might even discern familiar characters. Veve fondly recalls his time illustrating for the "Heard" section, highlighting the wonderfully peculiar and often humorous narratives curated by Tiffany Midge, such as the tale of a man pushing a peanut up a mountain with his nose or the stray dog named Ghost who found a life among coyotes. Indeed, a closer inspection of the cover reveals subtle "Heard" easter eggs, including Bo the Bear and Ghost, characters who first graced the pages of that column. Veve embraces the practice of remixing his existing work, forging connective threads between different pieces and breathing new life into recurring motifs and characters. His own cat, he notes, makes frequent, often hidden, appearances, contributing to what he perceives as a single, evolving artistic universe. Each new story provides fresh subject matter and thematic explorations, all of which he sees as orbiting a shared source of creative energy.

He likens his visual vocabulary—the objects, symbols, and motifs he employs to convey ideas—to characters in a theatrical production, appearing when they best serve the narrative or sometimes simply to inject a moment of personal amusement or an inside joke. Veve is particularly drawn to the concept of a character displaced from its original context, a device he uses to "defamiliarize the familiar." This recurring theme of displacement stems from a surrealist inclination, as fragmentation and cross-pollination strike him as more accurate metaphors for the complex world he perceives. His stylistic evolution, marked by the distinctive use of humor and whimsy, can be traced back to his childhood fascination with visual storytelling, from Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to the comic books that filled his home. He recalls the sense of discovery and narrative agency offered by "I Spy" books and the elaborate, often perilous, virtual mansions he constructed in The Sims, which allowed for the creation of personal storylines.

This inclination towards viewer participation mirrors his appreciation for maps and cross-sections, which visually underscore the interconnectedness of all things. Veve’s creative process involves revisiting and refining his work through successive layers, a method he likens to a writer meticulously editing a draft. He finds a unique allure in the "strange stillness" of a drawing, a stark contrast to the relentless pace of modern life. The deliberate act of applying a pencil mark, a gesture as ancient and elemental as drawing with the earth itself, feels profoundly significant. This approach connects him to a long tradition of art created by human hands, a tradition he feels is increasingly challenged by both artificial intelligence and commercial pressures, echoing the lineage from prehistoric cave paintings and illuminated manuscripts to WPA murals and the imaginative worlds of pulp science fiction.

While acknowledging "style" as a term that often overemphasizes surface, Veve describes it more akin to a materialized voice, akin to speech patterns or a characteristic gait, reflecting his unique way of perceiving and processing the world. Humor, he states, is integral to his work; if an image elicits laughter, he instinctively pursues that creative impulse. Whimsy, in his view, is a potent force capable of inspiring free association and disrupting established structures. The humor in his art is rarely a deliberate contrivance but rather emerges organically from the interactions within the piece or from associations the viewer brings to it, transforming the drawing into a conduit for such emergent levity.

For the special issue’s cover, Veve found his conceptual breakthrough in the idea of a "landscape of conversation." As he grappled with visualizing the abstract notion of dialogue, he began to conceive of conversation as a literal representation of interconnected webs and interactions, leading to the evocative phrase that propelled his creative direction. His visual research drew inspiration from medieval paintings and maps, particularly their stacked sense of space and their ability to draw the viewer into an immersive exploration of the image.

The most challenging aspect of visually depicting conversation, Veve notes, lies in striking a delicate balance between inclusion and omission. The strategic use of negative space and moments of visual respite between elements is a constant artistic consideration. Much like a well-paced conversation, his artwork requires pauses and silences to imbue it with deeper meaning. His initial sketches, he admits, were overly dense and "loud." To rectify this, he deliberately reduced the scale of elements and opened up the composition, creating literal pathways for the viewer to navigate and incorporating moments of quietude, such as the poignant image of a flower mourning severed stumps.

Among the myriad characters populating the cover, Veve expresses a particular fondness for the lone prairie-chicken, finding its bewildered expression to be a captivating detail. Those interested in exploring more of Armando Veve’s work can find him on Instagram at @armandoveve and on his website at armandoveve.com.