A basement, a sketchbook, and a stubborn belief that boredom can be a gift—that’s where this story starts. John Darley takes us from Florida swamps and Salt Lake basements to New York studios and back again, unpacking how a youngest child with high risk tolerance became a nationally awarded figurative painter. He talks about the ruthless discipline of apprenticeship under Jeff Hine, eight-hour model days at Grand Central Academy, and why craft has to come before concept if you want your work to speak clearly.

We dig into the real economics of a creative career: private commissions vs gallery splits, irregular income, and the two-year, sleep-starved sprint that ended with a hard-won mortgage and a garage-turned-studio in American Fork. John shares the painting “Bearing,” born from that dark stretch, and explains why patrons aren’t “customers” but partners who fund ambitious, guaranteed outcomes—like the large multifigure narratives he’s building now. Along the way, Utah’s quiet art power is revealed: clusters of award-winning painters and sculptors, international recognition, and a landscape that keeps pulling stories to the surface.

On the craft side, John breaks down egg tempera—egg yolk and pigment—for its muted, dreamlike register and the luminous “glow” that cameras never quite capture. He maps how sculpting sharpens drawing, how shape design drives interest, and how portraits can carry dense narratives in a single frame. It all ladders up to a simple credo: master the vocabulary so the work can say something true, then keep moving forward, embracing the unknown. If you’re an artist, collector, or just curious about the grind behind beautiful work, this one will sit with you.

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