Editor’s Note: Renick Stevenson is one of 12 local artists featured in The Artist Mercantile’s “Peace” exhibit at 720 Cooper Ave., Glenwood Springs. Stevenson is donating 100 percent of all sales of his work to humanitarian causes. Call 947-0947 for information.

City/hometown: I was born in Oklahoma, and was raised all over the country. I recently returned to Glenwood Springs because I have cancer and I wanted to be surrounded by beauty.Occupation: Fine arts painter and community organizerBackground/education: I’ve been in the art world professionally for the last 50 years. I trained in San Francisco under Raymond Howell and with other artists around the country. In the old days, apprenticing instead of years of attending school was big.Family information: Most of my family is gone. I’m the patriarch now. I’m 71 years old.

When did you know you wanted to become an artist? My mother disappeared the first five years of my life and she returned when I was five with a sketch book and a box of crayons. She said, “You just draw and we’ll get along fine.” She was an artist. She became my best friend and my worst enemy, and she demanded the most out of me and that was a good thing.What’s the inspiration behind your work? If there’s any theme in my art, it’s “Living your life creatively is the highest form of art.” That’s a Da Vinci quote.What’s your favorite subject, and why? It’s about living and dying well and that’s even before I got sick. It’s about the beauty of life. I paint both sides of the coin because you can’t have one without the other.What artists, living or dead, would you like to spend a weekend working with? Diego Rivera and his wife, Frieda Kahlo, because she’s one of my favorite artists, also.If you could only have one piece of art in your living room, what would it be? A sculpture by Ruth Duckworth, an 87-year-old sculptor who was just on the CBS Sunday Morning show. She’s just awesome. And I’d have a copy of the book “Centering in Pottery, Poetry, and the Person” by M.C. Richards.What’s the message would you like to communicate through your art? Living life creatively is the highest form of art. Whatever you do in life, make it an art form. Even if it’s washing your car.Biggest influences: Robert Henri, who started the New York Student Arts League. He wrote a book called “The Art Spirit.”Describe your art in one word: Chaos

Color: BlackMedium: I like all mediums.Food: QDoba’s Mexican gumboMovie: “Being There,” Peter Seller’s last movieBook: “The Art Spirit” and “The Yellow Room”Animal: I have two cats I had to leave back in Michigan Scooby Doo and Brindle KittyPoem/poet: “And the Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills” by Charles BukowskiSong/musician: Ry Cooder’s “A Meeting by the River,” a collection of Indian music, and Beth Nielsen ChapmanMuseum of art in the world: The Art Institute of Chicago, and right next to it, Gallery 37 Center for the Arts, which has wonderful programs for childrenPlace to paint in Garfield County: Glenwood CanyonPost Independent, Glenwood Springs Colorado CO