Blog
A is for... An Exhibit Catalog Designed by Steve Hartman about Artists
"A is for..." is an exhibit catalog that I designed, along with the fine folks at Firecracker Press. The exhibit of the same name was a show of original works from artists around St. Louis.
Read MoreOnce Upon a Town - A Fairytale Painting
Once Upon a Town at the Jacoby Arts Center
Once upon a time, earlier this year, a local toy store was closing their doors due to a called small business loan. The towns people of Edwardsville rallied behind the friendly folks at Happy Up Toys, owners of Once Upon a Toy, by creating a social media frenzy to save the toy store. With a crowd funding campaign to raise the necessary $75,000 to secure the loan, the community of toy-loving fans succeeded by raising more than enough to keep the land of play open.
I was honored to be a part of the community that made it happen. The experience was an inspirational event showcasing peoples ability to come together for a common cause... helping a neighbor in need. The experience was powerful enough to me to create Once Upon a Town that celebrates the true fairytale story.
mmmmmmmm. Bacon.
Who doesn't love bacon?! Even my most Jewish of friends love the stuff, or at very least salivate at its mere mention. As a culinary want-a-be myself, bacon is breathing. And still, my son loves it more than I do.
As most culinary challenges that peek my curiosity, the makin' of bacon presented itself as my next cooking challenge. With one call to my local butcher, Edwardsville Frozen Foods, I was awarded with nine pounds of pork belly. Eight days of brining, two hours of smoking and 10 minutes of frying later, this is what I created:
A lot of my paintings are inspired, or come directly from images that I have captured with my iPhone and shared on my Instagram feed. My painting, Slabs of Bacon, is an adapted oil painting from one such Instagram image:
While I might not be the right artist to paint a photo-realist painting of a photo like the one above, I certainly was the right artist to attempt to paint Slabs of Bacon in my own style. What developed is what I think is a real quirky and funny painting ... of bacon. Why I chuckle at it, I don't know. Maybe its the idea of the simplicity of slabs of meat on a cutting board. Maybe its funny how bacon has exploded into a pop-culture phenomenon, and now its being immortalized in an oil painting. I don't know, but bacon makes me happy, and so does this painting. What do you think of it?
Next Window Please - The Northside Dairy Bar
On the way out of Edwardsville, on the North side of town, there stands Northside Dairy Haven. I've called it Northside Dairy Bar since I was a a kid, and that's what my kids call it today.
There, you can get a shake, a malt, a twisty cone, a burger, hotdog and fried thingies. Not at all spectacular, but every bit of local charm makes your experience there better than expected. This is a slice of the Americana landscape that is slowly disappearing, but lingers on because of the few that still believe.
This painting, Northside Dairy Bar, pairs well with my painting, Litchfield in the genre of capturing the Midwest Americana experience that surrounds me. If you'd like to learn a little more about this place and what I get to see everyday, read more about it on the Sauce Magazine blog.