Steve HedbergVisual Artist
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New Territory: Sloppy Painting and Screen Prints

4/4/2013

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To embody your work, you must resemble it.

When I painted realism, rarely did I get a daub of paint on me. I'd wear work clothes into the studio, and on a rare occasion, ruin a good shirt.

Painting these city abstracts for my upcoming show, "Populace," requires a more expressive, free-style approach with the brush. I'm now standing rather than sitting, the music is even louder and the brushes are bigger with globs of paint. I ruined my way, one shirt, one pair of pants at a time, to two full outfits, each spotted with different colors of paint. I guess it's my spring collection. While my clothes get messy, the color and compositions of my paintings become more expressive and unpredictable. My work and my wardrobe seem to represent each other's evolution.

My recent work has led me to look at my creative process in a new light, and to become more expressive and trust my artistic judgment. I like to challenge myself when creating a new body of work, and for this show, I decided to take on a new medium. I created a series of works on paper using the screen-printing process.

I used silk-screens to print random shapes into color compositions, on which I added ink drawings. This isn't the traditional application of screen printing, but rather a painter's version of it. On some of the prints, such as "Polis No. 1," I screen-printed up to 24 individual colors and shapes over several sessions in the studio.

Studio Two Three, a community print shop for artists and students, became my home for a month. Ashley, the director, and a community of interns and artists showed me the ropes and made me feel welcome, not to mention old as hell. I've been painting alone in my studio (shed) for years, so this was an unforeseen highlight to be around creators in this great studio space.

A couple weeks ago, I stopped by Kroger on the way home from an evening at Studio Two Three, and the cashier thought I was a house painter — affirmation that I was doing something right.

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"Polis No. 2"
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"Bricks No. 2"
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I created random shapes which I imaged onto the screens and printed with various colors.
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Prints drying on the rack
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A Room With a Killer View

2/16/2013

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I have a show in April and I need to produce like crazy. Last week, I traveled to a remote area on the edge of the Blue Ridge mountains to immerse myself in my work for four days. I haven't had the opportunity to do so since my Route 1 trip, having too much on my plate at any given moment. Family, a full time job, teaching (that's a new thing), and an occasional game of SimCity leave me hours here and there to paint, so here was my opportunity to, as some might say in Amherst County, git er done.

No better place to do it than Luminhaus, a modern retreat perched on the side of a wooded mountain scape. Seclusion is the theme here, with only a land line and a steep, winding gravel road connecting it to the outer worlds. A long-distance call requires a phone card, which everything is here — long distance. No cable, no internet, and most noticeably, no humans.


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I painted steadily, and thanks to Luminhaus' impressive collection of contemporary and abstract art, the views and its walls were inspiring. I'm painting for my new body of work entitled "Populace," a series of new paintings to open at Glave Kocen Gallery on April 6. A friend pointed out that I sought out complete isolation to paint images depicting urbanization.

Upon return, I was greeted with a cell signal and a speeding ticket. Damn you, civilization.
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The typical shopping cart of reclusive painters.

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Two of the four pieces completed at Luminhaus. Several more are back in the studio and on the easel.
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I woke up to a dusting of snow the second day.
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The lineup of some paintings I started, and in a few cases, completed at Luminhaus.
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Down a different path

12/31/2010

1 Comment

 
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I've been toying with a new abstract direction and stumbled upon this illustrative, almost folk-art style. After producing the Route 1 series, which was a heavily planned, long-term, all-consuming project, I found myself wanting to break away and paint in the moment. I was working on an abstract piece (below), and followed my gut. I saw buildings in the colors and shapes and proceeded to draw a fictional city on the painted surface with an archival ink pen.

What I find interesting about this work is that I have tapped into a naturally whimsical, childish side, one that I didn't know existed up there in the painting section of my right lobe. I've often been told I act like a child, but never that I paint like a child. Above is the second piece in the style, and on the easel there are the makings of what resembles a tree. That could change.

I know it behooves me as a marketable artist to stay within my genre/style of painting, but I feel compelled to explore. It's funny that there would be any hesitation to try new things. The notion that sticking with what works goes against every natural law of art. I guess that makes me a renegade, a maverick if you will. I can see an abstract Russia through my canvas... We'll see where it goes.
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    About the Artist

    Steve Hedberg's work is exhibited at Glave Kocen Gallery in Richmond, Virginia, and has pieces in several corporate collections in the region. Click here to see more of his work.

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