Director's Note

Ellensburg, WA, born 1957

Self taught artist

About the Artist

 The cliché, “Art saves lives,” may sound corny, but when Stephen says it, you believe it.   He has had a long career as an artist, and has experienced all the ups and downs of the profession.  Yet, at the end of the day, he stands strong, confident in his passion as though a recent graduate.  How does he manage this?  I believe his on-going dialogue with art provides the reassurance that he and his wife (also an artist) work at daily.  Some artists conceive art easily.  For Stephen, it is the total human living dynamic.  Because his mind moves quickly, and creative ideas abound, he has to edit a lot.  Any fragment or piece of material is an art form to him.  His racing mind wants to turn it into something even more meaningful. 

When his large-scale sumi-brushes are created at Cal Anderson Park this summer, you will see an artist quietly going about his business much like a Buddhist monk.  Be sure to greet him with a “Hello Stephen!” You will surely recognize him, based on the description above.

Brush Pile  Featured Installation for MadArt in the Park

Our fast-paced society has made creating words a computer keyboard exercise.   There was the long-held practice of calligraphy writing in which the elegant movement of hand strokes would capture humanity’s struggles and successes over the millennia.  A new discovery has been made at Cal Anderson Park where a recent excavation of dinosaur-scaled sumi brushes has been unearthed.  For what were they used?  What stories was mankind trying to relate?