Ralph L. Steeds


 

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

 

My efforts and concerns have been toward finding the forms that will fit the needs of my imagination. Given the idea, everything else in a picture still remains to be done.  The picture is always hard to do, hard to realize.   It is difficult to predict in advance what the result will be.  One thing always leads to another but I usually enjoy the journey.

I use introspective, personal symbols that are not narrative in the manner of story telling.  I would like my work to be understood as a visual language, language in the sense that literature, poetry, music or mathematics is understood in their particular languages.   If a visual work of Art must be “understood”, then I think it must be “understood”, in its own forms of expression. I don’t think visual art can truly be understood outside its own language.  I am trying to tell a story for which I can find no words.

I have been doing self - portraits for many years.   The self - portraits are intended to be seen as a continuing visual diary.  The self- portraits may be obvious or hidden in the many visual layers of a particular work.

The signs and symbols I have used in my work for many years have become my artistic vocabulary, by using this visual language I hope to develop a dialogue that will pass back and forth between the viewer, the work and my self.
Mixing metaphors and paradoxes, I wish for magic and always hope to produce more than decoration.  The desired conversation is never easy or completely resolved.                                                                                                    

Ralph L. Steeds



© Ralph L. Steeds 2008