Cie Hoover’s wooden sculptures find inspiration in nature and music March 13 2026, 0 Comments
By Kimberly Nicoletti
Some of Cie Hoover’s wooden sculptures reflect notes from his previous music industry career in Nashville. Others portray nature within wall sculptures highlighting carved turns on a powder day at Breckenridge or serene reflections of a mountainscape upon a lake. Still others showcase portraits or engaging abstracts.
After attending college in Nashville, Cie Hoover ended up working on Music Row as a publicist for the likes of Garth Brooks. He moved on to Gibson Guitar, working there for about five years as their global event manager, where he was fortunate enough to manage events in Tokyo and Moscow and go to the Grammys and CMAs.
So how does a high-level publicist and planner end up leaving the limelight to renovate an 1898 mining house in Ouray and then ultimately launch a fine arts career?
It all began with an itch to be more creative.
“I got to meet a lot of cool people along the way (in Nashville), but it was the type of job that was kind of all-encompassing and didn’t allow for me to stretch my creativity,” he said.
From Above Mixed Media on Wood by Cie Hoover
He and his wife, Karisa Hoover, had been playing folk rock music as a hobby — he on the guitar, foot percussion and vocals and Karisa on vocals, keyboard, ukulele and hand percussion. So they decided to quit their jobs and go on the road to perform full time for about 6 ½ years.
Every time they played in Colorado, they kept finding excuses to return to the state. Ultimately, they sought reprieve from road life, settling down in Ouray in 2017. To date, they’ve release four albums together. Karisa teaches music within Ouray’s school district, so she has summers off, allowing them to still tour and perform a bit.
Despite remodeling the old mining house, Cie Hoover found he had more time on his hands. That’s when he delved into the visual arts world. He had always dabbled in the arts, and his mom was a photographer and oil painter.
“When we remodeled the house, I did a lot of projects myself and started accumulating tools and got into woodworking. We had redone our deck, and I had leftover wood scraps, so I started tinkering a little bit, and lo and behold, I found a niche and found my love of making art with wood,” he said.
He began with wall-mounted works for the first couple years and then started exploring free-standing sculptures.
At times, his musical propensity emerges through wall or freestanding sculptures based on soundwaves. He speaks a word into a digital program, which creates a visual depiction of the soundwave. He might say the name of a specific mountain range, town or even a person’s name and then emulate the soundwave through his wood pieces reflecting that specific flow and aesthetic.
He just completed a nearly 8 ½ foot freestanding sculpture called “Crescendo” based on the visual soundwave of the word. The helix spiraling shape carries that feeling of building and uplifting, as crescendos do.
Crescendo Wood Sculpture by Cie Hoover
“I’m always listening to music while I make art, so it’s always very much involved in my creative process,” he says.
Nature is also a predominant muse.
“Living in a kind of quintessential quaint mountain town, I’m super inspired by nature. One of my favorite things is just getting out and getting on trails and being inspired by the natural surroundings. Being a wood-based artist, that directly correlates to nature. I highlight the innate beauty that’s found there in the wood. It’s my homage to how much I appreciate the beauty of the mountains and trees and wildlife,” he said. “We kept gravitating more and more westward, and there was... kind of a raw energy. Getting away from city life and being more exposed to the elements is invigorating to the soul and the creative process.”
As a result, his art generates feelings of tranquility and grounding..
Not being one to limit his artistic expression, he also produces abstracts. Interesting wood grain patterns often inspire a piece — when he finds them, he enhances, or amplifies, what nature produced by carving, wood burning and/or painting the panels.
“It’s a mixed-media approach. It’s almost like looking at clouds and letting the viewer be the one to step back and be intrigued and letting them dictate what they see and what kind of emotions it evokes in them,” he said. “I’m the type of artist where I don’t want to be locked into just regurgitating the same thing over and over again. Part of the fun is exploring and experimenting and playing around with new ideas and concepts while still having my core approach.”
A few days ago, he introduced several new pieces into the gallery, after two of his carved wall sculptures depicting mountains reflected in lakes sold out.
“I’m carving dark tress in the foreground, and that was kind of a new approach — and you can see those grains a little bit more, as well,” he said about the sold-out pieces, “Transitions” and “Silent Serenity.”
A few of his new pieces feature Breckenridge skiing landscapes, while others depict wildlife or are abstract.
“It’s a good, full picture of everything I have in my wheelhouse,” he said.
“Ambience” is an abstract measuring 60x48 inches, in which stains emphasize very different wood grains.
Ambience abstract mixed media on wood by Cie Hoover
His new series, the transparency series, includes cut slots into wood, some figurative, others abstract. As you walk around the freestanding pieces, you see sections that are very opaque and look like a solid sculpture, but then as you pass by, they reveal a transparent quality. Two are approximately 28-inches high, while two others reach about 5 feet high, with a helix ball orb within.
Transparency: Seeker of Serenity Wood Sculpture by Cie Hoover
“I’m just experimenting and showcasing the full breadth and scope of what I’m able to do,” he said.