Playing Dirty (1) Painting

B.1980 in a working class section of Philadelphia, a neighborhood that offered a gritty visual landscape full of factories, abandoned railways and row homes. Stephen has long been attracted to the rusted, decayed and worn surfaces that wear the markings of life. His work pulls influence from the textures, personalities, designs and stories gathered by urban design and culture as well as the weathered city surface. Growing up in Philadelphia in the 1980’s and through the 1990’s, drawing and airbrushing were of primary interests. Stephen was also drawn to the expressive mark making and energy of graffiti and the murals that colored city surfaces in those years. A commercial art major, at a city vocational and technical high school saw the practice of poster design, sign lettering and advertisement layout to his artistic interests. While studying design in his early years at college, Stephen explored different ways of using script and text in his work, while maintaining an interest in traditional mediums of collage and assemblage. Stephen started exploring these mediums more and started painting as a departure from the intensive computer work that comes with studying graphic arts. The collage, assemblage and paintings weren’t as rigid, as the hours spent designing at the computer. An idea to combine the formal and geometrical aspects with the raw emotion and energy in painting and graffiti started to take shape. Layering with discarded items, advertisements papers and paint transparencies, brought an elated feeling that better expressed his interest as well as the desire for the intimate and visceral aspects that came with the development of each piece. Stephen now lives in the greater Philadelphia area with his wife, son, daughter, dog and cat. He works as a cement mason while painting and illustrating out of his studio nearby.