Photo courtesy Charles Harker, The Nude Taco

ARTIST OF THE MONTH

Charles Harker chooses his cafés wisely. One day he may watch the light rail from Lola Coffee in Phoenix; another day he may squeeze into a table on a buzzing street corner in Mexico City. No matter the locale, he is among many patrons furiously working at a laptop.

Harker, 52, uses vector graphics to populate his digital canvas with bright, bold “imaginary landscapes,” he says. Some images are busy, with eye-darting layers of skyscrapers, cactuses and jackrabbits. Others swirl colors together to form a more subdued – but still vibrant – scene.

Harker grew up in Phoenix and moved to the Bay Area to study fine art at the University of California at Berkeley. He later taught graphic design at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, then left to pursue art in the desert.

Now, Harker calls both Phoenix and Mexico City his home – and his inspiration. South of the border, Harker heads to a hotel he’s lived in for more than 10 years and pays $12 a night to have complete freedom to create busy art filled with shapes. While in Arizona, Harker’s work “empties out” to match the Valley’s vast and open spaces, he says.

In April, Harker released Imaginary Landscapes ($24.95, Sunbury Press), a 100-page book featuring 40 Southwest-inspired images. It is available in local bookstores.