Luke Gorder earned a BFA from the University of Wyoming in 2008, and a Education degree from Black Hills State University in 2012. He currently teaches drawing and painting at Central High School in Rapid City, SD.
Gorder's current work draws on collected imagery from a variety of sources, that he then collages into references for large scale oil paintings. This work represents a tension between his observation of the natural world and his desire to paint the world, as he wants to see it. The interaction of human vs. animal, reality vs. arbitrary color, and landscape vs. abstract surface becomes a struggle to reconnect with primordial nature.