Stephen Mauldin
The artist doesn't paint what he sees, he paints what he wants the viewer to see.
All artworks by Stephen Mauldin
IMP SERIES • 21 artworks
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These diamond-shaped pieces can best be described as a full spectrum of colors imploding/exploding from[...]
These diamond-shaped pieces can best be described as a full spectrum of colors imploding/exploding from a center point on a gray ground. They evolved from the diamond-shaped panels in the "Poles/Dipole Series". I liked those panels so much I decided to refine the idea in a new series. I'm always amazed that a painting is just paint on a piece of fabric but can create such magic. I wanted to make that more obvious in this series, right down to the raw, exposed canvas around the edges. Although I prefer that the canvas remain unstretched, it can be stretched, if desired, using a textural line that surrounds the image as a guide. The resulting stretched canvas would be a one foot square with the title and signature/date on the bottom edges of the canvas.
The small pieces on paper in the next series ("PREIMP Series") are done simultaneously with
these "IMP" pieces.
The small pieces on paper in the next series ("PREIMP Series") are done simultaneously with
these "IMP" pieces.
PREIMP SERIES • 77 artworks
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These small pieces on paper are free explorations of optically mixed color. They are done simultaneously[...]
These small pieces on paper are free explorations of optically mixed color. They are done simultaneously with the larger "IMP" pieces. As I begin working on any given "IMP" piece, I have to warm up the tool I use to sling the paint, as well as find out how the color I'm about to use is going to behave. Each color behaves differently due to differences in viscosity caused by the particular pigment in the color. Rather than waste the paint used to gather this information, I make quick decisions regarding combinations of colors on the small pieces of paper as I get a feel for each before adding it to the larger "IMP" piece. As the layers build up, new "optical" colors appear. After the first few, these small pieces became standardized in size and format, with four accompanying each "IMP".
POLES/DIPOLE SERIES • 19 artworks
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This is a series of canvases exploring the optical mixing of color that evolved from single panel pieces[...]
This is a series of canvases exploring the optical mixing of color that evolved from single panel pieces to two panel pieces and finally to four panel pieces. All of the changes that fueled that evolution related primarily to proportions, spacing, and the efficient use of materials, dull as that may sound. The basic idea, which was related to the optical mixing of color, never changed, it just became more refined and took on new meanings. Surprisingly, they evolved into something I never expected with a kind of pre-ordained order. It was a fun ride.
PRESENCE SERIES • 15 artworks
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All the paintings in this series ask the same question: What if this vast, breathtakingly beautiful[...]
All the paintings in this series ask the same question: What if this vast, breathtakingly beautiful physical universe that the Hubble Telescope and other instruments have documented in recent years intersects another universe, a universe of mind, of sentience? Two universes, existing in the same space (there is, after all, a lot of space between the tiny bits that make up our universe, on both sub-atomic and cosmological scales); two universes, intersecting but not interacting. The webs in these paintings represent the physical universe and are inspired by Hubble images, although they are, in fact, only slightly stylized interpretations of an image, generated by a supercomputer, of the web of galaxies and galaxies clusters in the early universe. The figures are meant to be "sentience" on another plane, pervading our universe but not interacting with it. As a group, these paintings represent an ongoing refinement of that idea...a Universe of Mind and Spirit.
NEBULA SERIES • 7 artworks
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Beginning around 2006, I used an electric little mark I had found to create images of "the universe[...]
Beginning around 2006, I used an electric little mark I had found to create images of "the universe of mind and spirit" as I envisioned it, inspired by images of the physical universe produced by the Hubble space telescope. I worked for several years to refine these images, especially the spatial aspects. All the pieces have a spatial structure built on a three-dimensional grid. Relationships between "figures" define that grid as it recedes in depth. Permeating that grid is a much larger, serene, higher(?) figure. A universe of Awareness. A universe with nebulas like our own.
SPECIES SERIES • 8 artworks
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These paintings are inspired by the visual cataloguing of plants and animals in the Victorian era.[...]
These paintings are inspired by the visual cataloguing of plants and animals in the Victorian era. I had been doing some studies related to more biological themes and this series came along due to the small scale of each piece. This is the only series that resulted from those studies to date, but there were studies for a "Biolog" series with one-celled organisms and a "Primord" series that resembled primitive aquatic plants. I may yet explore both those themes.
HEARTS AND FIRECRACKERS • 6 artworks
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As it happens, my birthday is the Fourth of July and m wife's birthday happens to be Valentine's Day.[...]
As it happens, my birthday is the Fourth of July and m wife's birthday happens to be Valentine's Day. It dawned on me one day that it was a bit odd that I had never made images of hearts or firecrackers. That sent me, briefly, on a tangent.
STRING THEORY SERIES • 11 artworks
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The paintings in this series were my first attempt at depicting a "universe of mind and spirit". It[...]
The paintings in this series were my first attempt at depicting a "universe of mind and spirit". It was inspired, in large part by my discovery of an electric little mark that suggested string theory to me. The mark is the embodiment of energy and string theory suggests that everything is, ultimately , made of tiny knots of energy.
STAMPED SERIES • 12 artworks
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This body of work was created buy stamping all the signifiers onto the canvas. I hand-carved all the[...]
This body of work was created buy stamping all the signifiers onto the canvas. I hand-carved all the stamps myself using art gum erasers to begin with, then I used a rubbery material marketed for printmaking. I created several dozen stamps to use as the "vocabulary" for these paintings. The content addresses the concept of a layered reality.
SHADOW SERIES • 16 artworks
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This body of work uses shadows to address the idea that everyday reality is a shadow of a much larger[...]
This body of work uses shadows to address the idea that everyday reality is a shadow of a much larger reality. There are also many other signifiers in each piece that deal with the idea of the larger reality being multi-layered.
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Recognition
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The artist is sold in galleries
Presented in Art Fairs
The artist participates in art shows and fairs
The artist participates in art shows and fairs
Biography
I started drawing at the age of about seven, got my first oil painting set at about ten and, sometime in-between, first saw an exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci’s engineering exploits. I was sold. I wanted to be an artist like him.
I have made it a habit over the years to play with paint in order to learn more about what it is capable (and not capable) of doing. This has led me to paint on glass, then transfer that paint into "paint assemblages", extrude paint from modified syringes creating webbed paintings that resemble bent, colored wire, and most recently, to sling paint from ultra-fine straight pins, at very high speed, onto canvas. The mark created by doing this just blew me away the first time I made it. Its defining characteristic is electric energy, but the incredibly fine nature of the mark is also striking. It immediately struck me as the perfect visual signifier for string theory. I decided to use the mark in the expression of the ideas I had been dealing with for years.
Beginning around 2006, I used this mark to create images of "the universe of mind and spirit" as I envisioned it, inspired by images of the physical universe produced by the Hubble space telescope. I worked for several years to refine these, especially the spatial aspects, then moved on to a series of radiant "figures" set against a web inspired by the distribution of galaxies and galaxy clusters in the early universe. (A web, I might add, that looks remarkably like the web of neurons in the brain.) All through this period, I wondered about mixing color optically by overlapping the fine skeins produced by this mark and eventually began a series to explore the matter. The “Poles” series began as single panels, but evolved into two panel pieces, then three panel pieces, and ultimately a four panel piece. The series is, on one level, simply an exploration of the colors that can be mixed in this manner. On a deeper level, however, it still deals with the same issues I've always dealt with, just in a more abstract idiom.
I am now seventeen paintings into a new series that expands on the look of the diamond-shaped panels in the last eight “Poles” pieces. These new pieces deal with the optical mixing of color exclusively, although they suggest energy condensing into matter to me, as well. Others have suggested they resemble “dreamcatchers”. Ultimately, there will be twenty-four paintings in this series. They are unstretched and have grommets on each corner to attach them to the wall. To me, the magic of a painting is the fact that it’s just a piece of fabric with paint on it, yet it can create such magic. I want that to be more evident in these new pieces, right down to the raw, torn fabric around the outer edges.
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Nationality:
UNITED STATES
(Contemporary American Artists)
- Date of birth : 1952
- Artistic domains: Painting
Influences
Education
1979 - 1981
Masters of Fine arts with concentration in painting and printmaking
Moscow,
Idaho,
United States
1970 - 1974
Bachelor of Arts with a major in Art
Olkahoma City,
Oklahoma,
United States
Artist value certified
No data available yet
Galleries & Groups
Presented by Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery
Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery
(Art gallery, United States)Achievements
Collective Expositions
2020
"7Th Annual Living Mark Exhibition"
Portland,
Oregon,
United States
2018
"5Th Annual Living Mark Exhibition"
Portland,
Oregon,
United States
2016
"3Rd Annual Abstract Catalyst Exhibition"
Portland,
Oregon,
United States
2015
"Ethos, Pathos, Logos"
Portland,
Oregon,
United States
2015
"Ethos"
Los Angeles,
California,
United States
2015
"Abstract Sanctuary"
Portland,
Oregon,
United States
2003
"18Th Annual Greater Midwest International Exhibition"
Warrensburg,
Missouri,
United States
2000
"Human Form"
Newport,
Oregon,
United States
2000
"Shadows 2000"
Coos Bay,
Oregon,
United States
1999
"For And Against Tradition"
Albuquerque,
New Mexico,
United States
1999
"All Oregon Art Annual (Professional Category)"
Salem,
Oregon,
United States
1999
The Inquisitive Object: A Biennial Review Of Northwest Art & Craft"
Portland,
Oregon,
United States
1997
"All Oregon Art Annual (Professional Category)"
Salem,
Oregon,
United States
1996
"Human Form"
Newport,
Oregon,
United States
1996
"All Oregon Art Annual (Professional Category)"
Salem,
Oregon,
United States
1996
"16Th Annual Northwest International Art Competition"
Bellingham,
Washington,
United States
1995
"8Th National Drawing And Print Competitive Exhibition"
Baltimore,
Maryland,
United States
1995
"The Land, (Biennial Competition)"
Tacoma,
Washington,
United States
1994
"Human Form"
Newport,
Oregon,
United States
1994
"All Oregon Art Annual (Professional Category)"
Salem,
Oregon,
United States
1994
"All Oregon Art Annual (Professional Category)"
Salem,
Oregon,
United States
1977
"Artists Of Oregon Show"
Portland,
Oregon,
United States
1976
"18Th Annual Eight State Exhibition"
Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma,
United States
Solo Expositions
2016
Featured Artist In Quest Magazine (Journal Of The Theosophical Society In America)
Worldwide Publication,
United States
2009
"Cognitive Ruminations"
Portland,
Oregon,
United States
2006
"Icons"
Portland,
Oregon,
United States
2000
"Intersection"
Sewanee,
Tennessee,
United States
2000
"Shadows In Time"
Baltimore,
Maryland,
United States
2000
"By A Factor Of +/- 2.5"
Shawnee,
Oklahoma,
United States
1995
"New Work"
Portland,
Oregon,
United States
1992
"Ten Years: 1981-1991"
Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma,
United States
1992
"Paintings"
Portland,
Oregon,
United States
1986
"Recent Work"
Seattle,
Washington,
United States
1984
"Processes Of Perception"
Savannah,
Georgia,
United States
1976
"Ironing Out The Wrinkles"
Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma,
United States
Activity on Artmajeur
Last modification date : Mar 30, 2023
(Member since 2020)
Image views: 52,000
Artworks by Stephen Mauldin added to favorite collections: 60
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