Emilio Lobato:
Mi Linda Soledad
(My Beautiful Solitude)

Artist Bio

Emilio Lobato was born in 1959 in the village of San Pablo, Colorado. He grew up on a ranch in this sparsely populated area in the San Luis Valley. For sixteen generations his family has lived in the Southwest, herding sheep and cattle, and working the land originally received as part of a land-grant from Spain in the mid-1850s. His ancestors were also versed in the arts. His great grandfather was one of a long line of weavers. His father, who had minored in fine art as an undergraduate student and had a Master’s degree in education, was his art teacher in 7th grade.

Lobato grew up in a deeply religious environment where he witnessed sacred celebrations. The many processions during Holy Week, in particular those by the Penitente Brotherhood, made a great impression on the young Lobato. The reenactment of the Stations of the Cross with men dragging heavy crosses, and crying faithful devotees singing sorrowful hymns and carrying bloody images of Christ were highly theatrical, awe inspiring and sadly profound.

In rural Colorado, Lobato’s aspirations to become an artist made him an outcast. His isolation was not only physical, but also emotional and social. The young Lobato contemplated suicide. Faith helped him through these difficult times. Creating art gave him comfort and seeking a life of beauty was liberating. Books became his only solace, as reading allowed him to escape from the sadness, imagine where he aspired to be and who he hoped to become. Lobato felt destined to spend his life creating art. At the age of 19 after graduating from high school, Emilio Lobato left his hometown of San Pablo and moved to Colorado Springs to attend college.

Lobato graduated from Colorado College in 1982. At the time, he had found the academic experience in Colorado Springs intellectually and artistically stimulating, yet the city still felt confining. After spending a brief time in San Pablo, he moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan and eventually settled in Denver in 1984 in search of greater exposure to the arts, and a more urban and culturally diverse environment.

In 1985, Lobato thought about looking for work in an art­related field. A year later, he was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts paid internship at the Denver Art Museum’s Education Department. From 1986 to 1989, Lobato was hired on a contract basis at the Denver Art Museum to assist in the installation of exhibitions. In 1989 there was an opening in the Education Department and Lobato was hired: Working full-time for the next three years did not’ allow him much opportunity to work in his studio. In 1992, Lobato took a leap of faith and decided to leave the museum to devote all his time to creating art.

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