We checked in with Arizona-based artist Nate Ronniger and asked him about the process behind his elaborate creations: ‘In many ways, I think of myself as a director. Situating a still life of mine is like putting on a miniature play. There are costumes, characters and props. I want the plot to be intriguing and clear while I aim to present both drama and comedy. I’m very intrigued with the element of paper. While fashioning paper for the pedestals, foregrounds, and backgrounds, I realized that any idea I have involving color, form, texture, and pattern, can be brought to fruition with this material alone. Torn, translucent, cut, or folded, it can take on any manipulation I come up with in any dimension’.

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I’ve posted the wonderfully surreal and vibrant work of Arizona-based artist Joe Sorren many times over the past couple of years, so it was time to check in with him in the workspace from which such amazing paintings are produced: Is your studio more about inspiration or functionality? ‘I was thinking about my studio the other day, and realized that I have had a fort since I was eleven. I guess this is my latest incarnation in a long string of forts’. What distractions to you paint to? ‘Audiobooks and silence’. How many artworks do you generally have on the go at any given time? ‘Between four and eight on average’. Where does the first spark for a piece usually emanate from? ‘If you lead with your hands, the mind will follow. That is a piece of advice my Mother-in-Law gave me once. I usually just begin and see what happen’. [photo by Grant Brittian]