Steadman, Jason

As a relative late comer to the visual arts domain, I find myself in a unique position of having neither bias towards the future or the past. This enables me to delve into the current art movements as well as the giants of the past seven hundred years, allowing me to concoct a melting pot of styles that are incisive representations of my many diverse inner personalities. Through the study of esoteric subject matter combined with the cross pollinating of Western and Eastern religion covering areas of reincarnation that essentially deal with my personal philosophy; I arrived at my latest series of paintings and drawings. The content could almost be described almost as an oxymoron if words could channel a description of the visual language of my work.

If you were to go beneath the layers of paint and mixed media you would sense an abundance of different stages at work. There seems to be no equilibrium, for each painting is a law unto itself exposing the nuance of some more than others. They start off with perfection in mind but as they evolve their form gradually deteriorates. This could be construed as a metaphor for life especially the human condition and the expectations that travel with age and how we are expected to evolve in a righteous manner. Quite often we fail to reach that level of perfection and drop out of the race altogether.

Instinctively I have opted for a primal representation for it has been with us longer than modernity and I feel connected to it. We will always retain our attraction to the look and feel of primitivism almost as though we recognize something but can’t quite pinpoint the soul or the essence of its mystique and that can make us feel at odds with our interpretation or understanding rendered or unresolved.