GEORGE M. SÁNCHEZ
“When you pour your soul out, when you try to express the things that are inside you — not just execute a pretty picture or show you can accurately render something everyone can see—succeeded in showing yourself or someone something they didn’t realize they could see or imagine, that is the precious moment when the artist becomes vulnerable. It’s like being poised at one of those times where you don’t know if your creation is going to make you unbearably proud or break your heart.”
George Sanchez began the study of art at an early age, influenced by the work of his father, Jose Sanchez, a respected art teacher and widely-noted Northern New Mexico artist.
Sanchez began his career shortly after graduating from Natrona County High School in Casper, Wyoming. After a move to Las Vegas, Nevada he worked as an illustrator for the Nevada Test Site News in Mercury, Nevada, followed by a stint as a graphic artist for an ad agency in Las Vegas. While avidly pursuing the study of fine art he worked as sole proprietor of a design studio, Sanchez Arts. Sanchez also partnered in an ad agency, Sanchez Advertising and Design, worked as creative director for KKTV 11 News, a CBS affiliate, acted as Executive Director of Marketing and Communications for Pikes Peak Community College.
Although Sanchez painted from early on as a child, he began his formal art training in 1971, when he enrolled at the University of Southern Colorado, in Pueblo. There, under the tutelage of Orlin Helgoe, Ed Sajbel, Lew Tilley & Robert Wands, he became grounded and centered in his approach to art.
Like his father, Jose, Sanchez spent time as an art instructor, teaching at the University of Southern Colorado, Sangre de Cristo Arts Center in Pueblo, Colorado, and Pikes Peak State College in Colorado Springs.
Sanchez’s paintings have appeared in one-and two—man exhibitions throughout the Southwest, and are in the permanent collection of The Taylor Museum at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College.
Born in Trinidad, Colorado, Sanchez now lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado.