Featured Artist: Tori Swanson
Issue 02 | October 2025
Tori Denae Swanson
Sketch by Tori Denae Swanson
Tori Denae is an artist based in rural Nebraska. Growing up on a farm, she came to deeply admire the land and life surrounding her and loved it for its quiet beauty. The sunsets, the rivers, and the wide-open skies are all sources of never-ending inspiration for her paintings and drawings. Through her artwork, she hopes that others living in similar spaces can also appreciate and see the inherent beauty and dignity in nature and the agricultural landscape. Her creative process starts with sketches and color studies, often done “en plein air,” but sometimes from photographs, then many layers of painting, working from general to specific. She aims for impressionistic realism with an emphasis on color, texture, and movement---trying to capture the feel of a place over a photorealistic interpretation. Tori sells her work at toridenae.com, and you can find her at art fairs and markets in Nebraska throughout the year.
When she’s not painting, Tori enjoys collecting hobbies (knitting and horseback riding have been her latest hyper fixations), reading sci-fi and fantasy books, and thrifting. She also has two cats that she loves to spoil rotten. Follow along on all her adventures on Instagram at @toridenaeart.
