The Studio of Michael Ome Untiedt

When he was a college student in the 1970s, Colorado artist Michael Ome Untiedt attended a lecture by Jacob Bronowski and remembers to this day most of what the Polish-British mathematician and philosopher said. “I heard Dr. Bronowski say that it is not tools nor intellect nor language that separate us from all other species on the planet. The thing that separates us from all other species is the ability to pass on aspects of our culture through acts of beauty, which he defined as art,” Untiedt recalls.

“That has led me my entire life. That’s why I’m committed to painting what comes out of my heart and head rather than what a photograph or the camera sees. I believe I have a sacred duty to do that.”

That philosophy not only has shaped Untiedt’s art, it has shaped his studio. By the nature of Western art, you’d expect a Western artist to live on a sprawling tract of land surrounded by flora and fauna; not so for Untiedt. His studio, which occupies one half of a turn-of-the-century, two-story Victorian townhouse, is right in the middle of downtown Denver.

Read the full article in the March/April 2024 issue.