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Artist Statement:
Artist Statement:
Color field
Paintings & Gridscapes
My work is best described as
accidental beauty or Shibui as
the Japanese call it. It’s my
job to reconstruct those
accidents with diverse methods
yet a consistent result.
The two most important tools
in my work are a stick to push
and pull paint around, and the
sun, to accelerate the drying.
The desert is the perfect
place to make this work. While
the painting is in the sun
cracking and crazing may
happen.
Placing a painting in the sun
to dry is similar to putting
ceramics in a kiln. I can
anticipate the results but I
can’t always predict what will
happen. Picasso used to say, “
Painting is stronger than me.
It makes me do things I
normally wouldn’t do”.
I’m influenced by Turners
skies, Rothko’s compositions,
and Richter’s method of
pulling paint.
STEVEN DERKS
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Further Information
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Artist Exhibitions:
Coming Soon!
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Artist Galleries:
Exhibitions
2008 Shidoni Gallery, Santa
Fe, NM
Tangerine Gallery,
Tucson, AZ.
Grogan Gallery, Tucson, AZ.
Coda Gallery, Palm Desert,
CA.
Twist Gallery, Bisbee, AZ.
Trios Gallery, Solana Beach,
CA.
Gallery 801, Tucson, AZ.
Hacienda Del Sol, Tucson, AZ
2007 Shidoni Gallery, Santa
Fe, NM.
Gallery 801, Tucson, AZ
Tangerine Gallery, ...
Further Information
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Artist Reviews:
Coming Soon!
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Collections:
Corporate Collections
AMCEP Metals, Steven Kipper,
Tucson, AZ.
American Heart Association,
Tucson, AZ.
Beyond Bread, Restaurant,
Tucson, AZ
Big Brothers Big Sisters,
Tucson, AZ
Café Terra Cotta, Tucson, AZ
Caterpillar Memorial, Tucson,
AZ
Davis Bilingual School,
Tucson, AZ
DeGrazia Foundation, Tucson,
AZ
Dell Webb, Tucson, AZ
Gallery Golf Resort, Marana,
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Further Information
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Commissions:
Coming Soon!
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Steven Derks Biography:
| Biographical information for Steven Derks can be found below. The artist may choose what information to display. Sometimes the artist chooses not to display personal information to the general public. |
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Age
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51
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| Gender |
Male
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| Status |
Committed
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| Children |
1
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| Religion |
all |
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| Education |
Undergraduate Work |
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| Hobbies / Interests |
Art outdoors |
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| Favorite Artistic Medium |
Photography Color
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| Favorite Arthistory Movement |
Dadaism - (1916 - 1924)
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| Favorite Visual Artist |
Manray
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| Favorite Work of Art |
tooooooooooo many
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| Biggest Artistic Inspiration |
Nature |
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| Why Did You Become An Artist |
not provided |
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| Your Personal Biography |
Steven G. Derks
Finding and collecting curiosities in thrift stores and junkyards is a lifelong preoccupation and a passionate experience for me, rather like going to church. Three or four times a month I visit one of Tucson's four junkyards. I walk around alone, looking at the forlorn piles of bent, twisted and rusted metal lying all over the place. Now things start to happen very fast; everywhere I look I begin to see metal transformed into finished sculptures.
Most of my sculptures are conceived right there in the scrap metal yards where I find both the vision and the ingredients for my work. I just see a piece of metal and immediately imagine the completed sculpture it suggests. Most of the time, during one visit I am able to locate all of the actual metal parts that will be necessary to complete many sculptures, but occasionally an exciting piece of rusted metal will languish in my studio yard for months, waiting for the day I will find the piece or pieces that are missing.
I like the immediacy of welding; it is glue that sets up rapidly, in seconds. This makes metal become either plastic or rigid. But I never bend or cut the metal I use. This self-imposed limitation forces me to respond to the object as it actually is. My art lies in the assemblage, not the cutting and shaping of its individual parts.
I like my work to remain unfinished, even when I have carried out my initial vision for it. I resist signing the work for this reason. If it remains unsigned, it is a piece in process, and more things can continue to happen to transform it after it is sold.
Co-incidentally I hate to say goodbye either to my work or to people. The work and human relationships always have the potential for new life, and more redemption. I always expect that.
Making art allows me to have a spiritual and a psychological life without being directly involved in any theology or ideology. Through art I can engage my life deeply, and can impact other people's lives through how they experience my work.
The Catholic Apostle Jude is a figure of special significance to me, and to my work. The patron saint of a small Tarahumara Indian village in Mexico, his life was the manifestation of betrayal and redemption, twin themes that are central to my own experience.
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