Today we’d like to introduce you to Maggie Newcomb.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I am returning to making art after a long hiatus.
I grew up in Massachusetts and, like so many New Englanders, I moved out west for the skiing—first to Montana and now to Park City, Utah. I studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, took a break to live in the woods for a while, and ultimately finished my degree at the University of Montana, Missoula.
I’ve been in Park City since 2013, where I teach science and art for the public schools and our fabulous local Kimball Art Center. I also offer independent classes and workshops under the name Summit Steamworks LLC.
I have always balanced a passion for both science and art, and finding where those two worlds intersect has defined my creative journey. This fascination with the natural world completely drives the work I am making today.
Making art again has truly felt like coming home. I’ve been honored to have my work selected for local festivals and exhibitions, including The Wasatch Back Art Festival, The President’s Annual Show at SLCC, and Conserve Southwest Utah’s Annual Auction. Sharing my work with others has been immensely rewarding, and I am excited to continue!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I think the most challenging thing has been trying to do something else.
I knew I wanted to be an artist from childhood; what I do best is create things. However, for a long time, I told myself that a career as a creative wasn’t realistic. I went into teaching, which has been wonderful, fulfilling, and creative in its own way, but the pull of knowing that I am supposed to be making art never truly went away.
Now, at 41, I am in so many ways just starting out. Navigating that shift and building an art practice later in life is certainly challenging, but it is also incredibly exciting.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I have always been an art person and a science person and I like to work in the space where those two worlds collide. The natural world is endlessly fascinating, and I feel so lucky to live in such an inspiring landscape, here in the Wasatch.
Lately, my creative practice has focused on collage, creating images of local plants and animals out of hand-cut paper. One of the things I find most rewarding is the puzzle of it—the constraint of figuring out how to work with what is already there, the process of finding the right color, texture, shape, and pattern, the challenge of transforming it all into something new. I hope that my work brings the same sense of delight, surprise, and satisfaction to viewers as I feel when I am making it.
In nature, form and surface are often slightly offset from each other rather than neatly united. Camouflage, mimicry, and other visual trickery are adaptive strategies for survival. Collage is the perfect medium to explore these porous visual boundaries — using literal layers of paper to mimic the beautifully complex, often deceptive or disjointed, always idiosyncratic wild world.
I have always had a busy brain and an inclination towards starting new projects. Along with my personal artistic practice, I’ve recently started a small business, Summit STEAMworks. Through this venture, I design and run kids’ camps and workshops that dive deep into the crossroads of art, science, and engineering. I want to create a space for kids who also love creative puzzles, intersecting ideas, and doing lots of different things all at once. While my personal focus remains on my artwork, Summit STEAMworks allows me to bring that same creative philosophy to the community. In our classes, we tackle hands-on projects like building kinetic automata toys, engineering detailed pop-up books, and producing stop-motion animations. Whether I am fitting a collage together or helping a student engineer a moving toy, it all stems from the same lifelong drive to create and endless curiosity about how things can come together in new and interesting ways.
What makes you happy?
Creating things makes me happy because it gives my brain lots to do. There’s nothing like the moment of satisfaction when you’re trying to make something new, experimenting with different methods and arrangements, and then the dots connect and things fall into place. On the flip side, I do a lot of high intensity outdoor sports-skiing, mountain biking etc. That makes me happy because I can’t think about too much else while I’m physically going fast and working hard. My brain can rest.
Being with my family, seeing my kids growing into these amazing people, spending time with the people I love makes me happiest of all.
Pricing:
- Fine Art Prints, $30-40
- Small works, $150-350
- Large works, $400-1,000
- Commission work, $300+
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.maggienewcombfineart.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mkrnpc/
- Other: https://www.summitsteamworks.com/
