He may be 67, but mixed media abstract artist Harold Schlotzhauer has a hard time sitting still. He’s an occasional runner, an avid snowboarder, and just last summer he decided to hang up his skateboard. He’s constantly moving, so to him there’s no reason for his art to appear stagnant.

“I’m quite a bit interested in... the work being in a state of flux,” Schlotzhauer says. “Pretty much everything I do is pretty active.”

Schlotzhauer will be showing off his active art with his “Objects in Motion” exhibit from Oct. 6 through 31 at the Olive DeLuce Gallery at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Mo. An opening lecture will take place at 7 p.m. Oct. 6.

Born in New York, Schlotzhauer moved to California at age 6. He says that the state’s multicultural and multi-geographical characteristics have been an inspiration ever since he first took up art in the fourth grade.

He considers himself an “abstract cartoonist” who builds his work around bright colors and line work through painting, drawing and printmaking. In the 1960s, he was part of West Coast’s “Nut Art” movement, a rebellious reaction against the seriousness of the New York art scene.

He took up a job as a professor of painting at Montana State University, Bozeman, in 1980. While he continued to paint, he also got grants to experiment in digital printmaking. The 35 pieces on display in “Objects in Motion” are digital constructions, prints he has drawn on digital tablets printed on materials as varied as wood, paper, plastic, aluminum and bamboo, with occasional sculptural elements added to them. But Schlotzhauer stays true to his painting and printmaking roots, only making a certain number of prints before erasing the digital original and steering away from using too many computer tricks.

“I don’t use a lot of the gadgets that come with programs because they are all very familiar,” he says. “I don’t want them to look like photographs.”

Armin Mühsam, professor of painting and drawing at Northwest and a former Schlotzhauer student, thinks the art he creates exists on its own plane.

“Within the realm of abstract art, I think he has a pretty unique position,” Mühsam says. “He’s not following any bandwagons.”

Schlotzhauer likes to give the illusion of movement in his work, but he would also like for viewers to look at the abstractions in a way where thoughts are also in motion.

“Before we see something and recognize what it is, it’s a lot of things,” he says. “In my mind, it’s not art’s job to fully explain anything, it’s art’s job to raise questions instead of explaining answers.”