Somewhere Distant Painting

BD Griffith experiments with basic tools in multiple media to pursue work that is simultaneously simple yet profound. His work is held in museum collections including the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Center for Creative Photography, and Fort Wayne Museum of Art. He has exhibited widely, with 12 solo exhibitions including the Fresno Art Museum, HIgh Desert Museum, Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, and Griffin Museum of Photography; numerous small-group shows including the Phoenix Art Museum and University of Arizona Museum of Art; and dozens of awards from America’s best art fairs. Griffith has been featured in Slate, Black & White, Arizona Highways, Photo District News, Diffusion, AZ Lifestyle, Phoenix New Times, and the Arizona Daily Sun. Before becoming an artist, Griffith earned a degree in engineering and built a successful career with an international management consulting firm, but found his job unfulfilling and was troubled by the environmental impact of his clients. He ultimately resigned to follow his conscience. In order to pursue art full-time, he adopted a simple nomadic life, camping out of an old van and saving every dime for gas and supplies. When Griffith’s van broke down in Flagstaff, Arizona, he fell in love with the mountain town—and then his wife—and has called it home ever since. In 2016, Griffith received the Flagstaff Arts Council's Viola Award, the city’s highest honor for arts achievement, and was recognized by the Phoenix Art Museum with a Contemporary Forum Artist Grant.