"Thunderhead III" by Hugh Daly, acrylic on canvas

Hugh Daly, Operations Manager at Atlas, leads a double life. By day he manages, organizes and basically ensures that Atlas Advertising doesn’t spontaneously combust. Nights and weekends, he creates color ideas from everyday life. And he is quite successful at it.

I took a few minutes to pick the brain of our resident painter and here is what I found out:

How long have you been painting?
I come from a creative family – both of my parents are artists.  I’ve been drawing since I was in elementary school but got serious about painting after college.

Where do you get inspiration from?
I find color ideas in everyday life and draw themes from my travels and from nature mainly.  Often times everyday events, like sitting on my patio sipping coffee will inspire a concept for a painting.
Also, I stretch my own canvases.  I feel like the process binds me to the painting before I even start the work.  I know the canvas will be stretched exactly how I like it – I am my pickiest client!

Where is your work currently being displayed?
I currently show at the Sandra Phillips Gallery in Denver and Art & Soul Gallery in Boulder.  My studio is at my home, so I guess you could say that would be my third gallery.

Do you listen to music while you paint?
I typically listen to jazz or classical when I paint, sometimes even certain techno – the music relaxes me but also keeps my brush moving energetically.  It is interesting to see how the different types of music affect my work.

Do you have a local favorite artist?
There are a couple of local artists I draw inspiration from – Craig Marshall Smith and Amy Metier.

Do you participate in First Friday?
Not typically – although it is a great opportunity to catch galleries all open after hours together, and to do some networking, it is conversely a difficult time to truly ‘see’ the art with so many people milling about.  I prefer to slip into a gallery on a quiet afternoon and be the only one there.  I feel like I absorb so much more.

I imagine most painters as being barefoot while they work, is this true for you?
Nope, I wear something on my feet.  My basement studio has some pretty chilly cement floors!

How do you balance your double life?
I like having my full time job at Atlas and working on my paintings on evenings and weekends.  I find it is a good balance for me between left brain and right, between working for someone and working for myself.  It takes the pressure off of having to create in order to sell, and allows me to be true to myself with respect to my work.  Being around all of the creativity here at Atlas is also a great part of the equation!

To see more of Hugh’s work you can visit his website at www.hdaly.com.

Congratulations to South Central Kentucky, who just launched their new website!

At Atlas, we are community marketers. We hail from all corners of the country and we are constantly looking forward to where the next adventure will take us. From client kick-off meetings to family vacations, we love exploring new communities.

We have collectively lived in over 45 cities, visited almost all the 50 states, and have traveled to over 25 countries.

One employee just returned from Hawaii, another from Ireland. We currently have two employees in Iowa and one in Switzerland.

I’ve collected a list of our hometowns and thought it would be interesting to share.
See if you can guess which Atlas employee calls which city home:

Chicago, Illinois
Bayville, Ohio
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Houston, Texas
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Richmond, Virginia
Denver, Colorado
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Omaha, Nebraska
St. John, Michigan
Phoenix, Arizona

Joining our support team this summer, we’d like to welcome Brian Young.

About Brian Young
Some people might call me nerdy. I would say I am resourceful and curious. Learning about places is a passion of mine. And traveling is another passion. My yearning for knowledge and experiences translates into an exciting position with Atlas Advertising, as Product Support Specialist. I help our clients get the most out of their place marketing by providing support for their websites, GIS tools and other online marketing tools.

His Expertise
My expertise lies in web design, user experience and content management, with an innate ability to bring that experience to anyone. Said differently, I am the one people come to when they need help getting the most out of their website after launch.

Places He Loves
I am a Colorado native and, in keeping with tradition, i will always call Colorado home and consider it one of my favorite places. A few others include Northern California, Cozumel, Ireland and Washington, D.C.

A Success Story
For most of 2009, I was an integral part of bringing a multi-faceted website to production from the ground up.

Congratulations and good luck to all this year’s website clients who are submitting for IEDC awards. We’re rootin’ for ya!