The challenge of visually representing the intricate tapestry of communication for the August special issue on Conversations was a significant undertaking, but former Visuals Editor Roberto "Bear" Guerra had a clear vision, enlisting the distinctive talents of Armando Veve, a long-time contributor to High Country News. For years, Bear and his colleagues had aspired to feature Veve’s work on the magazine’s cover, and the stars finally aligned for this issue, which also marked Bear’s final contribution to the masthead. Veve embraced the assignment with his characteristic enthusiasm and signature style, crafting an image that expertly navigates the complexities of dialogue. He introduced a whimsical array of unlikely conversationalists engaged in tense yet amiable exchanges, thoughtfully incorporating moments of convivial silence to illustrate the dynamic flow of a meaningful back-and-forth.

Based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Veve’s artistic journey brought him into the orbit of the High Country News office in Paonia, Colorado, a couple of years prior when he passed through during a road trip to a Telluride art gallery. His thoughtful responses to questions about the cover artwork and his broader artistic philosophy offer a compelling glimpse into his creative process and the inspirations that fuel his work.

Veve’s artistic process is deeply rooted in a meticulous and layered approach, a dedication that shines through in the rich detail of his creations. He primarily works in graphite on paper, a medium he cherishes for its immediacy and its profound connection to the act of writing. Veve often conceptualizes drawing as a form of visual writing, a way to articulate ideas through imagery. His drawings are constructed like sedimentary layers, beginning with graphite and evolving through applications of watercolor and colored pencil. For the cover piece, while time constraints necessitated the addition of color digitally, Veve emphasizes that even these digital layers are guided by his hand, with the drawing and color ultimately merging on the printed page, which he considers the final realization of the artwork within the context of magazines and newspapers.

In his everyday life, Veve finds inspiration by actively processing the world around him, using drawing as a tool to center himself, make sense of chaos, and give form to his inner thoughts, sifting through them for meaning. He is perpetually seeking inspiration, striving for greater awareness of his surroundings and an ability to notice the often-overlooked details of daily life. Veve actively endeavors to reduce his reliance on screens, favoring more direct engagement with the physical world and with people. His practice includes long walks, undertaken both for photographic observation and to create mental space and stimulate his mind. More recently, he has been drawing more from memory and less from reference materials, an approach he finds invigorating and one that opens up new creative possibilities on the page. For Veve, drawing serves as a means of maintaining a dialogue with both the past and the future, fostering closer observation and prompting new ways of thinking. It is also, in his words, akin to "scratching an itch," a process of peeling away surfaces and digging deeper in search of symbolic narratives.

The spirit of Veve’s collaboration with the magazine on the "Heard Around the West" column, which he illustrated for several years, is palpably present in the cover artwork, with alert readers likely recognizing familiar characters. Veve fondly recalls his time illustrating for the "Heard" section, appreciating the peculiar and humorous stories curated by Tiffany Midge, such as the man who pushed a peanut up a mountain with his nose or the stray dog named Ghost who fled his home to live among coyotes. He confirms that a keen eye will spot several "Heard" easter eggs on the cover, including Bo the Bear and Ghost, characters who first debuted in that column. Veve enjoys remixing older pieces and weaving connective threads between them, breathing new life into recurring motifs and characters. His own cat, he notes, is often hidden within his works, inviting viewers to look closely. He views all his creations as part of a single, evolving world, with each story providing new subject matter and themes, all orbiting a shared source of creative energy.

Veve likens his visual vocabulary—the objects, symbols, and motifs he employs to convey ideas—to characters in a play, appearing when they best serve the concept or sometimes simply out of personal whim or a desire for an inside joke. He particularly favors the inclusion of a character that feels out of place, having been removed from its original context. This recurring theme of displacement, he explains, serves to defamiliarize the familiar, stemming from a surrealist impulse where fragmentation and cross-pollination feel like more accurate metaphors for the world as he understands it.

His distinctive style, characterized by the unique application of humor and whimsy, has been shaped by a lifelong fascination with narrative imagery, dating back to his childhood viewing of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and the comic books that filled his home. As a child, Veve was captivated by "I Spy" books and the elaborate, often perilous, mansions he constructed in "The Sims," experiences that fostered a sense of discovery and empowered him to build his own narratives. He sees a democratic quality in this approach, allowing the viewer to forge their own path through the artwork. This inclination also draws him to maps and cross-sections, mediums that highlight interconnectedness.

Veve’s creative process involves revisiting and layering his work, editing and refining it akin to a writer pruning a draft. He appreciates the profound stillness inherent in a drawing, a stark contrast to the rapid pace of contemporary life. He finds something almost absurd, yet elemental, in dedicating extensive time to a single subject, rendering marks with the direct, ancient stroke of a pencil—literally drawing with the earth in the form of graphite and clay encased in cedar. This practice connects him to a long tradition of art made by human hands, a tradition he feels is increasingly challenged by technological advancements and commercial pressures, tracing its lineage back to the earliest cave paintings, illuminated manuscripts, WPA murals, and the fantastical worlds of pulp science fiction.

He describes "style" as a somewhat limiting term, overemphasizing the surface of a piece. Instead, he views it as a materialized voice, akin to speech patterns, gait, or his fundamental way of understanding and processing information. Humor is a vital component of his work; if an image elicits laughter, he generally follows that instinct. Whimsy, he notes, is a potent force, inspiring free association and destabilizing established structures. The humor in his art is often not intentionally engineered but emerges organically from the interactions within the piece or from associations the viewer makes, acting as a vehicle for those connections.

For the cover artwork, Veve drew inspiration from the concept of conversation itself. While grappling with how to visually represent it, he began to contemplate maps as literal depictions of intricate webs of interaction, leading him to envision a "landscape of conversation." This phrase became the driving force behind the entire concept. His visual research included an examination of medieval paintings and maps, appreciating their stacked sense of space and their capacity to invite viewers to wander through an image and discover their own unique pathways.

The most challenging aspect of visually depicting conversation, according to Veve, lies in striking a delicate balance between inclusion and omission. Building sufficient negative space and moments of repose between visual elements is a constant struggle. He likens this to a good conversation, where pauses are essential for meaning to develop. His initial sketches, he admits, were overly crowded and felt overwhelmingly "loud." Consequently, he decided to reduce the scale of all elements and open up the composition, creating literal paths for the viewer and incorporating moments of silence, such as the poignant image of a flower mourning fallen stumps.

Among the characters populating the cover, Veve finds a particular fondness for the lone prairie-chicken, appreciating its evidently confused expression.

For those interested in exploring more of Armando Veve’s work and staying updated on his latest projects, he can be found on Instagram at @armandoveve or visited via his website at armandoveve.com.