We see a lot of sunsets in Western art. And sunrises. Even full moons. But never Saturn. And certainly not Saturn in a moon-like orbit where it fills the entire horizon, its rings scraping the edge of Earth’s stratosphere. This intergalactic setting is one of science fiction movies and space operas, but for Cyrus Walker it’s the American West.
Capricorn, mixed media, 48 x 48 in.
Walker’s painting with Saturn, Capricorn, also features a red mustang, a grey skull and a despondent cowboy, all of it rendered in a pulpy, faux-comic style that borrows from the past while also looking to the future. “It’s a perfect jumping-off point for mystical things and mythology, and also finding one’s own personal philosophy,” Walker says of the piece. “I like art imbued with a sense of wonder so the mind can have an opportunity to stretch its legs.”
The artist, first widely seen at Mark Maggiori’s Far West show in New York City in the fall of 2024, is no stranger to stretching the mind’s legs. Others works, all of them Western in setting and theme, include levitating horses, giant rabbits, pink mushrooms, pterodactyls, living skeletons and, in a painting titled Garage Beers, a cowboy encircled by a pink ribbon that conceals his face and confounds the viewer with more questions than answers.
Cyrus Walker in his Montana studio with Study of a Soul on the easel.
“The ribbon represents the Ouroboros, which is the snake eating its tail,” he says. “I come from New England, and being out in the West is a whole different world. I think I can get away with some of this imagery because I’m just far enough removed from it all that I can be a little strange with the work. I just take these Western motifs and try to answer my own questions with the images. Anything to bring some clarity to my mind. I do find it interesting to paint ideas that don’t relate to the West within Western images. I think of The Iliad and how fun that would be to recreate using Western cowboys. Movies have done this sort of thing, and there are epics that feel a lot like The Iliad or The Odyssey with Western figures going through different trials and tribulations to overcome their fears and claim victory. It’s fun to combine two things together to see how they function as one.”
Garage Beers, mixed media, 40 x 40 in.
Adding to these thematic interpretations is Walker’s unique painting style, which is rooted in pulp comics of the mid-20th century, but with a hearty dash of Pop Art in the style of Billy Schenck or Roy Lichtenstein. Illustrator A.R. Mitchell is also an influence. He primarily works in oil and acrylic, but will also include spray paint, oil pastels and graphite—everything is on the table. This throwback style allows Walker to key into a specific time and place, while also elevating the subjects to a surreal realm, a place where dream logic, fable and fantasy overlap with the Old West. The closest comparison to his work is not another fine artist, but surreal filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky, particularly the director’s landmark 1970 “acid Western” El Topo. The film uses intensely violent and subversive imagery to convey a sense of desperation and isolation in the desert. In Walker’s works, his imagery is meant to convey similar emotions within the framework of the “Wild West” and its lawless inhabitants of the desert frontier. Further reinforcing these themes is Walker’s interest in philosophy, including in the writing of French philosopher René Descartes, who probed subjects like doubt, knowledge and the metaphysical and universal connections between mind and body.
Dimensional Voyager, mixed media, 48 x 48 in.
“I live in a rural area near Helena, Montana, and it affords my mind lots of time to wander and pursue different notions about the world, including areas related to philosophy,” he says. “That’s my way of digesting and understanding my curiosities about the West.”
Walker was born and raised in Vermont, almost as far away from the West as possible without leaving the country. There he was exposed to art early, primarily through his illustrator uncle. “I was homeschooled, and my uncle was a pretty good artist, so I had opportunities to fly down to whatever agency he was working for and shadow him at a young age,” he says. “I’d be like 10 years old sitting around ad agency tables, and he let me just be a part of everything. So at a very early age, I had an understanding that I could pursue a career in art. When I was young, I didn’t think it would be fine art, though. I thought it was going to be graphic design and illustration.”
My Buddy is Getting Unmarried, mixed media, 40 x 40 in.
Walker eventually moved to Big Sky Country to go to Montana State University, which was a setting he preferred over an art school. “I needed that collegiate atmosphere,” he says, adding that he nearly went into a snow sciences program that would have tracked him into something like avalanche patrol. It didn’t take long before he realized he didn’t want to chase avalanches his whole career. When he left that program, he immediately went back into art at MSU, where he studied graphic design. In his senior year, he opened a design agency focused on branding and logos. “I did a lot of beer labels and whiskey labels,” he says. “But then I started illustrating these posters for Yellowstone National Park and I sold them to retailers in the area. That was when it all started clicking in my head.”
Just Happy to Be Here, mixed media, 32 x 42 in.
He also started following the work of artist Bob Coronato, who’s known for his rodeo posters, among other important work involving cowboys and Native Americans. When Walker asked if he could try his own rodeo poster, he was met with encouragement. “Bob was great. He was like, ‘Go for it. Just make it look cool.’ It meant a lot to me for him to do that,” Walker says. Coronato adds that he was impressed Walker asked for permission, especially since other artists had copied his work and been sneaky about it. The two are now friends. And the rodeo posters were a hit.
You Can’t Take It With You, mixed media, 36 x 48 in.
Since then, his career has taken him exciting places, including to Far West in New York City, and to numerous galleries around the West: Cassens Fine Art, Montana Trails Gallery and Dick Idol Signature Gallery, all in Montana; Mixx Atelier in Telluride, Colorado; Paul Scott Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona; Mountain Trails Gallery in Jackson Hole, Wyoming; and True West Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Bottom of the Ocean, mixed media, 36 x 63 in.
Even as he explores strange subjects and complex themes, he’s getting positive feedback from collectors and fans who are looking for art that is not afraid to test their interpretations of the West. “I do hear great feedback and, to be honest, I don’t really know why. Probably because I’m not stepping on anyone’s toes. Not traditional artists, or even other more contemporary artists,” Walker says. “I’m so far out there that I get to do my own thing in this abstract place where all this imagery makes sense to me…It’s very important to paint from a personal place, it’s therapeutic and it has a level of authenticity because it’s the one thing that I know the best, which is my mind. After all, the only thing that is truly ours and we possess solely is our mind. That really rings true for me.” —
To see more of Walker’s work, visit www.cyruswalkerart.com, or follow him on Instagram (@cyrus.walker).
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