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News Article
Diamond painter dazzles with artwork collection
Hobby helps Denver Water recruiter build community, learn art history and keep creative juices flowing.
For Anthony Harper, diamond painting — creating sparkling, three-dimensional works of art — is much more than a way to pass time.
It’s a bridge to art history and a link to a worldwide community of artists.
“I’ve never been a crafty person at all, and I don’t find myself particularly artistic,” said Harper, a Human Resources talent senior specialist for Denver Water.
“And I didn’t hold a lot of value to making things — it just seemed like clutter. But this opened me up to a lot of skills I didn’t know I had and social muscles I’ve never flexed before.”
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Diamond painting is niche hobby in which people “paint” a picture with tiny pen-point-sized gems. Patterned paint-by-number canvases guide the artist, who uses special pens with adhesive tips to dab the 2.5-millimeter diamond tiles into place. It takes dexterity and patience, but diamond painters say it’s calming and relaxing, much like piecing together a puzzle or coloring a page.
Harper started the hobby two years ago, forging a connection with his former supervisor who created the paintings in her spare time.
Since then, he has created 40 pieces, many of which are replications of classic paintings now in the public domain. He has completed a diamond painting replica of a Peter Paul Rubens piece from the 1600s, and he is currently working on a 1918 Polish painting.
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“This craft has sparked this interest in artists, even modern artists,” Harper said. “It creates a connection between you and artwork made 200 years ago.”
He immerses himself in the historical and cultural aspect of the artwork, cooking kielbasa and learning about Polish culture while working on a Polish painting.
And he ties it all together on his YouTube channel and Instagram feed, building a community of diamond painters that stretches across the globe.
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“A lot of folks who do this are older, retired, their families are out of the house,” he said.
His videos foster companionship and friendship.
“I take a lot of joy in doing that. It’s nice to know people are feeling a connection,” he said.
The paintings can take months to create, and he has several going at once. He even set up a diamond painting station at an empty desk in HR to encourage others to join the fun.
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“HR is a very crafty bunch,” he said.
The hobby and corresponding virtual community of diamond painters has spilled over into his professional life in Denver Water’s talent and recruitment department, giving him fresh perspective and empathy for all the people he interacts with each day.
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“It teaches patience,” he said. “Patience for the actual craft, and also patience for social communities with a lot of people you don’t know. You learn not to take too much to heart, and you believe people have good intentions and move forward.”
That social aspect surrounding a solitary craft is what makes diamond painting so appealing, he said.
“It’s a very small niche to diamond paint, and it’s an even smaller niche to have social interaction around the craft,” Harper said. “But it’s so fun to connect with other people.”