Biography

Malone grew up in Houston and has lived most of his life in the American South and Southwest -- the settings of much of his work. He holds degrees from the University of Houston (BA 1978) and The University of Arizona (MFA 1986). His polymathic career, in addition to painting, covers numerous experiences and disciplines. He has been a soldier, a bartender, a newspaper journalist for five years between degrees, an instructor in English literature and writing at several colleges and universities, a book critic, an editor at a literary magazine, a writer and poet, an author. His books include the award-winning In An Arid Land: Thirteen Stories of Texas (1995), a second story collection (2000), and a novel, This House of Women (2001). Since its publication, and before, Malone has lived and worked full-time as a visual artist. His paintings have appeared in a number of exhibitions, galleries and publications, on both sides of the Atlantic. First an abstractionist, Malone investigates his themes, people and landscapes in several other painterly genres as well. Over the years, his approach to painting has evolved into an amalgamation of these influences and, coupled with a renewed emphasis on narrative, has led him to a signature style and pallet in his latest series, Rust unto Gold. (Portfolio)

His painting career began, ironically, when his mother Lillian died in 1996 as he was still engaged in a life of letters and living at The University of Illinois in Urbana. From his childhood on, Lillian had painted florals and landscapes, and she was part of a small association of women artists in the Houston area. He remembers still the intriguing studio smells that hovered around them -- the fumes of old turpentine! -- and the comic nature of their painters' smocks. His godmother, Fernie Parker, was a bit famous back then for her roses, and she was the leader, the teacher, of the group. In summer workshops, Malone also studied under Fernie at her studio on Houston's westside. It was thrilling and joyous and playful -- his approach to painting hasn't changed much in all these years -- and his mother was full of encouragement. A bank officer by profession, Lillian also taught him how to get by as an artist, though it would be many years before he heeded her words and bent his fortunes toward painting. 

Malone now lives and works at his studio in Rockport, Texas, a fishing  village on the Gulf of Mexico.