Photograph by Shannon Malone
BRUCEARTIST MURPHY Interview by Harryet Candee
Tell us a little about your life starting from any point you want to share. My life really began when I moved from Tyler, Texas to New York City to attend Parson’s School of Design in 1970 where I received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting. I had finally arrived at a place that was about art and creativity. To wake up each day in New York City, was an exciting adventure. I have tried to live my life with that same intention of excitement and creativity ever since. I have always worked for myself doing something creative and innovative. I have done home renovations and furniture building for different publications from Mechanics Illustrated to Family Circle. My carved animal 16 • NOVEMBER 2021 THE ARTFUL MIND
Photographs supplied by the Artist
sculptures sold for ten years at Mabel’s on Madison Avenue, and they often still appear in antique stores and homes all over the Hudson Valley. In 1996 I became the co owner of China Rose, a popular Chinese restaurant in Rhinecliff, where I renovated the building and built the bar out of a pulpit I bought at an auction. I was tired of carving animals, and the sake margaritas were a real hit, so China Rose was my fortune cookie for over a decade. For the past 15 years, I have had the good fortune to just paint and take photographs. As an artist you’ve been into sculpting, painting, and you’re a great photographer and
gardener. Am I leaving out anything? Of all these venues, which one has taught you a great deal about art and life? I think photography and gardening have taught me the most about art and life. There is a certain permanence to a photograph, and a certain impermanence to a garden. My Asian inspired garden has been in process for twenty years, and my photography began only three years ago. The iPhone camera has taught me to see the garden in ways that I had never before experienced it. The play of light on the architecture of nature is never the same from minute to minute. Knowing that the flowers are going to die, inspires me to take more and more photos.
