We are happy to announce our featured artist for the 2020 Wasatch Mountain Film Festival: Liz Kuz.
Liz is a Wasatch local who works as a designer and creative director in the outdoor industry when she isn’t getting after it in the backcountry. She is an all around nice person, not to mention an incredible designer and artist, and we’re excited to feature her artwork for 2020.
This is not an artist statement.
Liz Kuz has no profound ‘feelings’ about her art. She has no artistic theme, no preferred medium. Drawing, painting, sculpting, printmaking and digital design are not necessarily cathartic for her. She feels no ‘magic’ when she creates. She does not even intend for you to look too long. Sure, she enjoys it. But for Liz, art is whatever. It’s an extension of her being—nothing more and certainly nothing less.
“I painted this thing because it’s awesome.”
Liz Kuz is the Associate Creative Director at Skullcandy. Before her time in Utah, Liz graduated from the University of Ohio with a Fine Arts Degree and soon after found herself making rails and kickers as a Terrain Park Fabricator in Steamboat, Colorado. She grew up skiing and snowboarding, always valuing time spent in the snow, and is now proud to call Park City home.
Whether building rails or painting watercolors, Liz’s approach is the same. “Art is problem-solving,” she says. “And as a graphic artist for Skullcandy, I am an art chameleon.”
Liz takes on the style she needs, the medium required, to get the job done. Whatever is needed, Liz can produce. Her experience is eclectic, her background is multifaceted. Moving big rails? No problem. The slopes are her art. Digitally painting landscapes? She’s got it. The mouse is her muse.
Liz is an artist by trade, but it is also her hobby. She is constantly creating – painting on camping trips, illustrating on long hikes, designing on her off days. But one grand theme seems to hold all of Liz’s hobby art together: the outdoors. She loves being outside, taking what she calls ‘outdoor showers,’ always with a proverbial pen in hand. Drawing, painting, sculpting, printmaking, photography or digital design is Liz’s natural response to the ‘awesomeness’ around her. While mother nature speaks, Liz transcribes in the way she feels right.
Recently, Liz has taken to dusk landscapes and digital pointillism. And in typical Liz fashion, it’s simply because it’s different: “Few people are doing dusk landscapes and absolutely no one wants to create them using tiny circles on a computer. So I do. I think that’s cool.”
Usually, Liz is terrified of color; a strictly black and white girl. But for Wasatch Mountain Film Festival 2020, Liz took on the challenge of combining her recent intrigues with color and her proven love for the outdoors. The result is a pointillist’s take on Mt. Grandeur overlooking a cloudy and glowing Salt Lake City. Liz didn’t find this view. She didn’t envision the piece for us. She had no plans to create it. We asked for it and Liz delivered in a style she felt appropriate. And we like it. A lot.
Liz’s art is problem solving—she hopes it is accessible and easily understood. Again, don’t think too hard.
You can follow her design and art account on instagram: @LizKuz
And visit her website: LizKuz.com
