Video by Katie Bieri
Phoenix artists, friends and local buyers gathered at the Firehouse Gallery, a residential art space, on the evening of Sept. 13 to commemorate the passing of local artist Craig Koch through a showcase of his artwork.
Michael and Joanna 23, owners of the Firehouse on First and Roosevelt streets, along with other contributors, assembled a gallery of Koch’s pieces for the community to give a final farewell to the artist, who committed suicide last month in New Mexico.
Koch was a resident of the Firehouse from December 2007 to March 2009, Michael 23 said. Described as extremely prolific by the artists at the show, Koch needed a constant change of pace and scenery. After his stay at the Firehouse, Koch left for Colorado for some time and later returned to Phoenix to continue his work.
Koch is the second Firehouse resident to pass away; the first was killed by a drunk driver. Both deaths were a heartfelt loss to the Phoenix art community.
“Craig struggled with depression,” Michael 23 said. “Lives as artists are troubled.”
Most artists would presumably choose to create work for compensation, but not Koch. Generous, humble and simple, Koch was constantly giving pieces of his work away to anyone he once shared a meaningful moment with, as if handing out a reminder of that memory.
Joanna 23 wore a wire bracelet during the showcase that Koch had given to her as a gift.
“It represents an intervention with him; a conversation. I see him like a tree dropping leaves everywhere,” Joanna 23 said.
Attendants described Koch’s piece ‘Urban Caveman’ as baring the most resemblance to his personality. A rectangular stretch of canvas, Koch’s painting reflects the techniques of artist Keith Haring and his use of definitive, colorful lines. The painting depicts two people with bullhorns atop their heads holding hands.
Kevin Patterson, a friend of Koch, said artists are usually controlling and want their art to be interpreted in a specific way. However, he said Koch wanted the art to convey whatever the viewer wanted it to. He was attentive to his audience and their interpretation of a piece.
Patterson said he recalled Koch being “extremely easy to talk to; a particularly good listener. He could live in the head space of where the (viewer) was coming from.”
“Craig was always working. His work represented motion with a purpose,” Patterson said.
It is this “motion with a purpose” that attendees said was so eclectically represented in every painting, wire sculpture and pendant Koch created. There is a constant continuation of thought symbolically shown in the wrappings of the wires and the flow of the marble paint on the canvas.
Koch’s art serves as not just inspiration, but as a distinctive memory of who he was and what his connection with the community meant to him.
