Obituary of Geoffrey Eugene Wilder

Geoffrey Eugene Wilder, age 46, born January 9, 1971 in Houston, Texas, passed away on Wednesday, August 30th, 2017

Geoff was preceded in death by his daughter Angel, and son Noah, of Colorado,      and his mother Deborah Cochran Wilder of Houston, Texas. He is survived by his son Aaron, daughter Avery, and son Wyatt, all of Colorado, father V. John Wilder and his wife El Matha of Houston, brother Brad Wilder of Odenton, Maryland, step-brother Alex Horn of Houston, step-sister Serena Horn of Austin, half-sister Yvonne Stone, nephews King Wilder and Kevin Stone, aunt Janellen Wilder Cole and her husband Ernest, and uncle Norman L. Cochran.
 
Growing up in Houston, Geoff was an acolyte at St. Paulʼs Episcopal Church along with his best friend Taft McWhorter. Geoff’s life-long interest in art started in Houston, where he began taking art classes at The Glassell School of Art at the age of five. Geoff continued to excel in the arts at Lamar High School, and he later earned a degree in Art from the Art Institute of Houston.

Geoff moved to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado in 1997 and lived in the Roaring Fork Valley for 17 years building custom homes in Aspen, Snowmass and Vail, and concentrating on custom carpentry projects and making art out of recycled material from job sites.

He returned to Houston in 2014 and opened his own studio in the supportive art community at Winter Street Studios. Working with primarily exotic hardwoods and an assortment of metals, Geoff sought to find a balance between the two as a metaphor of life. His art reflected the combination of humans in coexistence with organic materials.

Geoff’s work has been featured in galleries in Aspen, Glenwood Springs, Colorado Springs, and Monument, Colorado, Houston and Round Top, Texas, and New Orleans, Louisiana, and he was featured in an article in The Leader in 2015: http://theleadernews.com/different-strokes-how-the-washington-avenue-arts-district-may-become-a-national-destination-for-artists/. To see some of Geoff’s work, please visit his website at www.geoffwilder.com.

Geoff will be dearly missed by his family and many new and long-term friends.

A Celebration of Geoff’s life will be held on Thursday, September 7th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Winter Street Studios, 2101 Winter Street, Upstairs Gallery, Houston, Texas 77007.