Meet Lon Hyatt: Local Artist & Beer Enthusiast
Meet Lon Hyatt: Local Artist & Beer Enthusiast
BY JEFF FIJOLEK“I used some of my stenciling and did some airbrushing. It’s simple, but it pops. Anybody you talk to in the neighborhood would know black and gold is probably Golden Handle,” says Lon Hyatt.
The Spokane-based artist and owner of Brush and Brews painted one of Edible Inland Northwest’s magazine racks for Golden Handle Brewing Co’s new location. “It’s Downtown, it’s next to the train tracks, so I wanted to do something more industrial.”
Hyatt made the decision in college to go into business to avoid falling into what he calls the “starving artist gimmick”, but a work trip to Israel in 2019 led him to change career paths.
“Being a Christian since I was an itty-bitty boy and then getting to see Jerusalem, it was an awakening for me,” Hyatt says. “I’ve been in corporate America for close to 30 years, but something lit a fire inside of me to go back and reevaluate what was important in my life, and my art came out of it.”
Lon says that upon returning home to Colorado, his priorities had changed.
“I would work 60 hours a week for my company and then spend all of my free time painting. I would paint through the night, drink some coffee, watch the sun come up, go back to work the next day, rinse and repeat.”
Things didn’t change until May of 2020 when Hyatt accepted a buyout from his corporate job during the COVID-19 shutdown. His wife, Tami, had been working remotely for a Spokane-based company for a few years and the two decided that they would pick up their life in Colorado and relocate to the Inland Northwest. After some searching, the Hyatts found themselves a house near Millwood where Lon could have studio downstairs.
While familiarizing themselves with their new surroundings, Lon and Tami were enjoying a glass of wine at Bottles in Millwood and met Jeff and Candace Clark, brewers and co-owners of Precious Things Fermentation Project. The Clarks pointed Lon to Chris and Jason Gass at YAYA Brewing in Spokane Valley as a venue for him to show his work.
“I call up Jason and go ‘Dude, I’m an artist. I heard you guys might take up art on your walls. I’ve been to your brewery and I think it’s badass.’ He told me to come in and I never left.”
Hyatt has installed his art at close to 30 locations in the area over the past year and a half which has helped him raise his profile locally, but it is the Brush and Brews classes that have allowed him to really get face-to-face with the community—and fight off any looming fears of being a starving artist. With Brush & Brews, Lon schedules classes at local breweries, including Golden Handle, and invites patrons to come, enjoy local beer, and create their own work of art that they can take home.
“When I came out here, I went from big corporate guy to small business advocate,” Hyatt says. “The people in the brewery community here are real, they’re level, and it’s funny how you find so many of them who have been former technology people like me. Like, you had that job that paid the bills, but now we all get to do the things we really care about.”
Lon says his art is maturing and he is working on getting it placed in more local galleries. He is also expanding Brush and Brews to more local breweries and establishing roots and a public studio space where he can host classes more regularly.
“I like teaching and getting to know the local community,” Hyatt says. “I don’t care how much I have to go and do because I love it.”
For more information visit hyattink.com
Find out where Lon will be teaching upcoming classes at brushandbrews.com
