Late Carson City artist honored with featured exhibit in October
Submitted by Brett Fisher on Fri, 09/29/2017 - 8:47am
Event Date:
October 6, 2017 - 4:00pm
Prison can leave a person with nothing but time. Scott Tyzbir chose to spend his drawing.
Once Tyzbir started, in fact, he never stopped. The 52 year-old Carson City artist drew exclusively with pencil clear up until his death on Aug. 30 of this year.
Tyzbir would use anything he could find to draw on while in prison, his widow, Wendi Tyzbir, said.
"He'd find whatever he could to draw on," she said. "There was legal paper, cardboard, envelopes. He did a lot of envelopes."
Wendi still has most of Scott's original pencil drawings, dozens of which are unframed and stored in an artist's folio. Several more are framed and displayed around Wendi's apartment in Carson City.
American Indian culture is a predominant theme of Tyzbir's work. Scott was the son of a Sioux father and a Cherokee mother, Wendi said.
"When he was younger, they would go around to pow-wows a lot," she said. "They even had a sweat lodge in their back yard."
Tyzbir wasn't always an artist, though. He hadn't realized his talent until after he had lost a 14 year-old son.
Tyzbir's son, Cody, died in 2004 while Scott was doing time behind bars. Just before Cody had passed away, he approached his father in prison.
"His son came to him in his cell one night and said, 'Dad you've got to do something for me,'" Wendi said. "Scott picked up a pencil the next day and never put it down. It's all because of Cody."
Tyzbir drew with both passion and vision, Wendi said, never using pictures or other images as his inspiration to draw from.
"Almost all of his drawings came straight out of his head," she said. "The only way he could draw is if he had a cup of coffee, his cigarettes and KOZZ playing."
Tyzbir first received public recognition for his artwork in 2012, Wendi said, when he had placed second in the Nevada Artists Association Nevada Day Art Show held at the Brewery Arts Center.
He entered the show each subsequent year since then. In 2016, Tyzbir took home three ribbons: One for second, another third and an honorable mention award, too.
"He was really proud of his work," Wendi said. "He liked people seeing his work. People got excited, which got him excited."
Throughout the month of October, the late Scott Tyzbir will be the featured artist on display at the Carson City Art Gallery, 110 South Curry Street in downtown Carson City.
The month-long showing, which runs through Nov. 1, will be Tyzbir's first exhibition in an art gallery, Wendi said.
Tyzbir's posthumous exhibit opens Friday Oct. 6 with a reception from 4 to 7 p.m. at Carson City Art Gallery. Light refreshments will be served.
Wendi said having this show for her late husband is important not just for his art work, but for the community to learn about the artist, too.
"As a person, Scott was a very giving man," she said. "He was a big teddy bear. Even though he may have looked mean, he was a teddy bear underneath it all."
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