Keeping the West Alive: One Painting At A Time | Art with Heart
Western artist Katie ❤ West is pictured with the late Jon Locke, whose partnership and encouragement played a pivotal role in her life and work. The collage surrounding them reflects West’s artistic journey and deep ties to the Western film world, featuring her fine art portraits of John Wayne, Sam Elliott, Butch and Sundance, and James Arness, along with an American Cowboy tribute to Locke and a cartoon-style caricature of the couple. Together, the images represent the people, stories and values that shaped West’s art, faith and lifelong connection to the American West.
As Valentine’s Day approaches, the Douglas County Herald is introducing readers to a woman whose life story has been shaped by love, including love of art, love of faith, love of the West and the kind of love that allows a person to become fully themselves.
Western artist, musician and storyteller Katie ❤ West has spent decades capturing the spirit of the American West through fine art, music and monumental projects. Beginning this week, she is also sharing those experiences with readers as the Herald’s newest columnist.
The heart she includes with her name is intentional. West said that while she has always led with heart, others were the ones who named it for her.
“I’ve always had heart,” she said. “But people kept pointing it out to me, that what mattered most was not just the art, but the heart behind it.”
An Artist From The Beginning
Katie ❤ West was born Sept. 13 at St. Francis Hospital in Los Angeles and moved to Norwalk, California, at age 2. By kindergarten, it was clear she saw the world differently.
At age 5, she drew a detailed portrait of her mother, complete with pearls, hands and facial features, while her classmates drew stick figures.
“I remember thinking, ‘What is wrong with me?’” West said.
That creativity, however, was not encouraged at home.
Raised by an alcoholic father who discouraged creativity, West was told she could not pursue certain dreams. When she said she wanted to be a drummer, she was told she could not because she was a girl. She kept the dream to herself, but it never disappeared.
She also dreamed of owning a horse but chose not to tell her father. Wanting to be a good daughter and respectful of him, she kept that dream quietly hidden.
A Prayer That Took Time
As a child, West would sit on a rocking horse, gazing at an image of a woman riding, the cowgirl she hoped to become. In that moment, she prayed for the life she imagined and later wrote a poem about that prayer.
“God answered it,” West said. “It took more than 50 years, but He hears every prayer.”
The horse who ultimately fulfilled that childhood prayer is Trigger, an albino with blue eyes. West said she instinctively named him Trigger at birth, believing he was a palomino, long before realizing how closely he mirrored the horse she had imagined as a child.
Faith at the Center
West said faith became central to her life during a time when everything around her felt as though it was falling apart.
“I have to put God in everything,” she said. “Because my life was falling apart.”
That faith now anchors her art, her writing, her music and the ambitious projects she continues to pursue.
She is quick to say she does not take sole credit for her work. Her creative process, she said, is guided by prayer and listening.
“I can start a new piece of art, then realize it is not what I envisioned… I Pray. God makes me better than I am. He leads me.”
Learning by Doing
In her early 20s, West opened Free Style Graphics, a graphic arts business in California, despite not fully knowing what “graphic arts” meant at the time.
She took every job that came through the door, taught herself each process and never missed a deadline. Over more than three decades, she designed hundreds of thousands of logos and projects, always beginning by asking clients what mattered to them.
“I wanted to know what was in their hearts,” she said. “And God showed me how to turn that into art.”
Her clients included national corporations and institutions. Eventually, she stepped away from commercial success to pursue what she had always wanted to be, a fine artist.
Dreams Rekindled
A turning point came during a visit to the home of Karen Carpenter, where West noticed a drum set in the corner of the room.
“That’s when I realized my father was wrong,” she said. “Girls can be drummers.”
West became a drummer at age 39 and purchased her first horse at 40, fulfilling the two childhood dreams she had carried quietly for decades.
A Love Story on the Open Road
West’s life took a profound turn when she met western actor Jon Locke on the western film circuit. Their connection grew through shared music, shared faith and a shared love of storytelling.
West and Locke were married for 13 years, from 2000 to 2013, and traveled together for 10 years. During that time, they traveled an estimated 250,000 miles, or roughly 25,000 miles a year, across the country.
When they performed together, Locke played banjo while West played a custom washboard instrument she created and named Ernie, after actor Ernest Borgnine. The instrument included bongos, cowbells and hanging pots and pans, which reflected the joyful life they shared on the road.
“He believed in me,” West said. “He let me dream.”
Locke died in 2013, but West speaks of those years with gratitude, describing them as a time when she was encouraged to become fully herself as an artist, musician and storyteller.
“When someone lets you become who God destines you to be, God changes you.”
Finding Home in Ava
West moved to Ava in February 2014, choosing a property she said she knew was hers the moment she saw it.
“Nobody knew who I was when I came here,” she said. “And that was okay.”
Her artwork can now be found throughout the community, including the Ava Post Office, Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, Ava Police Department and Mayor Kirk Pueppke’s office, where her western artwork contributes to a space many have described as feeling like a classic television western.
West also designed an outdoor wall mural featuring Tom Selleck, Sam Elliott, John Wayne, Gunsmoke’s James Arness and Festus on Jefferson, just north of the square near Ava Mall, where Longdollar is located.
She also completed a mural for the American Legion in collaboration, in faith and prayer with Father God, asking for more abilities and talent beyond her own.
The American Legion mural is signed, “Thank You Father God & Katie West.”
She is also developing The American Wall Of Freedom, an engraved granite wall planned to stand 8 feet tall and 772 feet long, telling the history of America from its beginning to modern day. The project is being developed in collaboration with WallBuilders’ David Barton and Patriot Academy’s Rick Green.
“Our community is amazing,” West said. “We live in Mayberry, and our goal is to keep it Mayberry.”
Introducing the Column
West’s new column, True Grit, debuts in this issue of the Douglas County Herald and will appear regularly in the weeks ahead.
Readers will find her first column on Page 2, where West introduces the people who shaped her earliest understanding of faith, values and character, beginning with Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, whom she knew personally.
In the debut installment, West reflects on watching Roy Rogers on television as a child, dreaming of becoming a cowgirl and owning a horse named Trigger. She shares memories of Roy and Dale’s unwavering faith, their commitment to family values and the lessons they passed on, which she says shaped her life from a young age.
West said her second True Grit column, scheduled to appear in the Feb. 12 issue, will focus on Trigger, the albino, blue-eyed horse who fulfilled a childhood prayer she carried for more than 50 years.
A New Chapter
As Valentine’s Day approaches, West’s story is one of love, including love that encouraged growth, love that shaped purpose and love that continues forward.
“This isn’t the end of a story,” she said. “It’s the beginning of another.”
Through her column, West will invite readers along, sharing stories from the western film circuit, her fine art, her travels and the moments that shaped her life.
“My joy in life is seeing others happy,” she said. “My hope is to touch your heart and spirit.”
How to Contact Katie ❤ West
Readers interested in learning more about Katie ❤ West’s artwork, commissioning original pieces or discussing art-related projects may visit katiewestart.com or contact her at [email protected]
