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The Denver Gazette
Written By Colleen Smith
PAINTING THE NOSTALGIA OF COWBOYS AND COWGIRLS
David Kammerzell puts a fresh twist on the Old West. His playful and colorful collage-like oil-on-acrylic paintings depict cowboys and cowgirls of yesteryear. The artist draws inspiration from historic photographs and dresses his subjects in romantic, patterned clothing often blending with a background of antique wallpaper patterns. The effect is akin to Americana time travel.
David Kammerzell’s paintings pay homage to cowboys of yesteryear. He’s pictured here at The Legacy, the new building at the National Western Stock Show complex, which houses the 2026 Coors Western Art Exhibit and Sale. (Collen Smith/Special to The Denver Gazette)
“I find vintage cowboys more interesting. Nostalgia is a big driver,” Kammerzell said. “I always try to bake in the emotional component of nostalgia, a bittersweet bond with what was. It’s a memory of a dream you recall. It’s a place you visited, and you’d like to go there but you can’t because it doesn’t exist anymore: a restaurant that’s closed, a house you lived in that’s torn down.”
ART EVOKES EMOTION
Inspired by commercial art from the Golden Age of Illustrations — the early 1900s through the 1950s — Kammerzell’s work stands out as whimsical yet evokes emotions complex and mercurial.
“Artwork affects people in real subtle ways and can create an attachment,” he said. “It’s like a song or a movie people love. I see people when they look at my work and watch their reactions. People can see it’s joyful and fun.”
Though 2026 marks Kammerzell’s sixth or seventh year participating in the Coors show, he applied four or five times only to meet with rejection.
“When I finally got in, I went ‘Whoohoo!’ It felt like I really had made it, that I was getting somewhere in my career. I was flattered to have my pieces hanging in the same space as other great Western artists,” said Kammerzell, citing Dennis Zieminsky and Thomas Blackshear as two of his favorites over the years.
Born in Houston, Kammerzell has lived in Denver since the ‘60s. He and his wife, Erin, make their home near the University of Denver campus. The artist recalled going to the National Western Stock Show as a boy.
“But I’m not a Western guy,” he said. “I don’t wear boots. I don’t own a cowboy hat.”
After attending the University of Arizona and Metropolitan State College, Kammerzell enjoyed a successful career as an illustrator and a video designer He didn’t begin painting in earnest until his high-paying job with good benefits was eliminated when he’d reached his 60s. He first painted landscapes.
“But that’s a crowded field,” the artist said. “I was painting other things, too, but people weren’t getting it. I decided to narrow my scope to make marketing easier. I needed a fresh voice and vision to bring to the party, so I played with the cowboy thing and built a body of work. And that was when I started getting in shows like the Cherry Creek Arts Festival.”
AMERICAN COWBOY MYTH RIDES ON
Kammerzell emphasized the pervasiveness of cowboys and cowgirls in American culture.
“Buffalo Bill had a Wild West show that toured the nation and was a big hit in Europe. Before Coca-Cola and Disney, cowboys were one of America’s first culture exports,” said Kammerzell. “The cowboy theme was really pervasive: cowboy toys and clothes and cap guns, but also bedsheets and lunchboxes and television and interior design. I had an aunt in Texas who had cowhide and wagon wheel furniture, and she had branding iron decorations on the wall.”
The cultural impact of cowboys seeped into the American consciousness, said Kammerzell, who acknowledged freedom as an underlying value of the American West mythology.
“One thing that has made my work so accessible was that I didn’t need a big sell to explain what cowboys are because everybody has an idea. And it’s not just one idea, but multiple ideas,” said Kammerzell. “It could be the gunslinger cowboy who shoots from the hip and asks questions later, the wild guy. Or a cowboy could be an isolated individual, a loner who makes his own way and is very, very accomplished and successful at doing that.”
Kammerzell paints cowgirls, too, portraying them with feminine accoutrements such as pearl necklaces and pearl-handled revolvers. His cowgirls wear chic Western outfits complete with tooled leather belts and spurred boots, bandannas, hats, fringed vests and chaps.
THE TRUE WEST IS A STATE OF MIND
“I think people gravitate more to my cowgirls than cowboys,” the painter said. “The cowgirl is a strong, independent woman who doesn’t need a man to take care of her life, but can take care of herself, thank you very much.”
“People have their notions of cowboys and cowgirls and the West from movies and television, books, comic books, songs, poetry,” said Kammerzell. “I like the intersection of the real cowboy and the Hollywood cowboy, and I’ve painted Tom Mix and Buck Jones several times. Tom Mix said, ‘The Old West is not a certain place in a certain time, it’s a state of mind. It’s whatever you want it to be’.”
Kammerzell will open a one-man show titled “Golden Hour,” at Diehl Gallery in Jackson, Wyo., in July of 2026.