Jerry West was raised in Santa Fe and educated at Colorado State University, the University of New Mexico, and New Mexico Highlands University. For many years, he did artist-in-resident programs in schools, youth diagnostic centers, prisons, senior centers. During the course of his career he has also designed and built - often in adobe - custom houses in the Santa Fe area. He was a visiting teacher in painting and printmaking at University of New Mexico and at University of California at Santa Cruz.

West has been exhibited widely. His work is in the collections of The Pepsi Co., Inc., New York; the Cleveland Museum of Art; the New Mexico Art Museum in Santa Fe; The Albuquerque Museum of Art; the New Mexico State Capitol permanent collection; The Tia Collection, and The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, Portugal.