DAZE ARMSTRONG

Daze started his art journey drawing on walls at age three (according to his mother), then on to paper bag book covers between napping in his classes in junior high and high school. After high school, he attended Mesa State College for AutoCAD while owning a mural company and running a local pizza restaurant. From there, he moved back home to Denver where he continued to manage a bar and grill, and was commissioned to do the chalkboard art for Chili’s restaurants in the Denver metro area in the late 90s.

He got distracted from doing art from that last Chilis chalkboard until the pandemic of 2020. Helping raise beautiful identical twin daughters and working countless hours as restaurant manager. 

Thankfully he had retired from his career with the restaurant chain and started his handyman business. However, the pandemic took a toll on that business as well. Fearful of getting or possibly spreading the virus, he sheltered home with his dog, Applesauce Squishy Face, for the better part of three years.

Stuck at home, moving on from watching ALL of Netflix and Prime, his chosen distraction was the social media application known as Tik Tok. Figuring out that TikTok was not just people doing silly skits, dumb dances, and pushing political agendas, but an amazing world of friendly musicians and artists. His 20+ year hiatus from art was about to come to an end.

Connecting with several artists from all over our planet on social media, Daze was inspired to compete in a national Tik Tok art competition and WON! He was also challenged to draw something daily for 365 days and after completing that, he is still creating. From there he went on to join a team of over 100 artists from around the globe to auction their artwork to raise money for the victim’s families from the Uvalde school shooting in Texas. They raised nearly $10,000 for the cause and every cent went to those families through Victim’s First Charity. With all this going on he also managed to meet the love of his life, Melissa.

Daze’s art style includes graffiti, realism, graphite, landscapes, portraits, and funky sculptures. His very colorful work is inspired by embracing diversity on all fronts. Daze is also a musician since an early age thus the inspiration for the musician pieces. As for the Funky Monster Sculptures, they are inspired by his partner, Melissa and Ed “Big Daddy” Roth.

The pandemic changed a lot of how we live and he feels very fortunate for the way it brought art back into his life. He is honored to be a part of his first gallery experience here and hopes you enjoy his work!

Daze is a Colorado native and lives in Denver.

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