Neil Talbott is a retired Air Force Major and retired AF Civil Service Executive (GS-14) whose love for Colorado inspires him to produce pen & ink drawings, watercolors, and area photography of Colorado and Colorado Springs. His pieces are currently on display in Studio 105 at Cottonwood Center for the Arts, often in the Cottonwood Herbertson Gallery, and a piece will soon be on display at the Colorado Springs Airport. His first art publication was pen & ink sketches for his High School Yearbook, and he has continued to draw and sketch as a hobby throughout his military career. He has expanded his ability over the years by taking an art course through Famous Artist School, and numerous undergraduate art classes in illustration and fine art for credit through the University of Arizona, as well as several watercolor classes locally at BEMIS School of Art, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. His first professional pen & ink portraits with Academy and Colorado backgrounds were done as going-away gifts for his friends and colleagues at the Air Force Academy. He has often taken pictures primarily to provide background material for his art, or as gifts for friends, but soon found that his quirky and interesting pictures were worth framing by themselves. His recent association with Cottonwood Center for the Arts has encouraged him to expand his art and photography into documenting more historic landmarks like Glen Eyrie, Garden of the Gods, and the Pioneer Living History Museum. He feels that the ability to create can, and should, be cultivated here in our community and could be used to develop a new vibrant renaissance in Colorado Springs. Neil has a degree in Communications from Northern Arizona University, undergraduate credit hours in Art Illustration from the University of Arizona and Masters credit in Communications from Oklahoma University.