Ralph
J. Tice was born in 1902 in Ohio, the son of a Congregational
minister who moved his family to Denver in 1918.
Tice began to draw at a very young age. At the age
of seven, a teacher saw his talent and secretly
entered one of his drawings in the Iowa State Fair,
surprising him with a first place ribbon.
After
high school Tice wanted to become a veterinarian, but
finding money for college was difficult. Tice attended
the Denver Academy of Applied Arts and the Denver Art
Institute for two years each. He studied under two professional
artists, Robert Graham and Waldo Love who painted dioramas
for the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
His first career ambition was to become a cartoonist,
so he studied under Jimmy Steele of the Denver Post. Teachers
warned Tice that making a living as a cartoonist was difficult
and encouraged him to learn graphic art. Tice took their
advice. In his free time, he studied veterinarian textbooks
and drew detailed sketches of animal anatomies.
From
1925 to 1944 Tice worked as a Commercial Artist in the
Advertising Department of Mountain States Telephone and
Telegraph Company. As display manager he was responsible
for creating weekly window displays. It was during this
time he carved a figure he could not achieve any other
way. He fell in love with carving and wood sculpture.
For
twenty-five years Tice worked as a Commercial Artist for
the City and County of Denver designing signs for traffic
engineers, for political campaigns, and to publicize proposed
amendments.
Tice
was a lifetime member of Pictorial Painters of America
and a senior member of the Denver Artists Guild. He taught
woodcarving at the Emily Griffith Opportunity School and
at his home studio. He specialized in western and animal
art and carved mainly using hardwoods.
Tice retired in 1968 and moved to Fort Collins where he
continued to produce works of art with the assistance
of his wife Bessie. Tice won numerous awards throughout
his career for both his woodcarvings and oil paintings.
