Born to a Mescalero Apache mother and Hispano father, John Nieto envisioned himself an artist from a very early age. After graduation from college, he completed a stint in the Army working as an illustrator. Overseas, he spent time in Paris where he studied the artwork at the Louvre Museum, becoming particularly moved by the emotionally charged color treatment of the modernist Fauve movement. In the U.S. he retired home to his family roots, ready to follow his calling, depicting subjects meaningful to his life. "John Nieto has always brought a contemporary eye to classic western motifs. Whether portraying Native Americans or animals, his dramatic, often electric canvases make the viewer sit up and take notice. Nieto maintains that his art 'is more the result of an emotional involvement with my subject matter than a cerebral one.'" - Bonnie Gangelhoff, "Southwest Art", January, 1970