Steve's Writings
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“The idea for paintings comes from everywhere. From that which I have personally seen or experienced, to things that are a more universal part of the human condition. I tend to be able to look at life as a whole, made up of individual moments. I may think for years before making a specific painting, while another idea may become a painting days after the initial inspiration. I constantly make notes and sketches of ideas, for fear that I may forget them.” 2003. “I think of my paintings as songs. The visual impact of the painting is the music, and the actual content (what is happening) is the words. Of course, for many people, the words do not matter, and for others, vice versa.” 2003 |
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“It simply never occurred to me to paint about these themes in any other context than that of my own life as a person who happens to be gay. Why would I create paintings whose context was anything other than the truth of my life as a gay man?”
“The guys who model for me are a very important element of my work. They are like actors are to a director. They come from all walks of life. As I live in Toronto, Canada, all of the guys have lived here when I worked with them, although most have origins in places far from Canada. Most have never modeled before. Many models seem to like to send reproductions of the paintings they are in to their mothers." 2003 |
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“I see my work as a documentation, an interpretation, a crystallization of singular moments rendered in line, color, light, shadow, using a hundred brushes, a thousand colors, and a million brushstrokes. I strive to make people stop, if only for a moment, think and actually feel something. My paintings contain as many questions as answers.” 2000 |
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“I have never pretended to represent, depict, or even understand every homosexual or the sub-cultures within a gay culture. No heterosexual has ever represented all heterosexual people or all of their life experiences. It would be both naïve and false for me to even attempt to do so with gay people.” 2002
“Love, Light, Loss, Life. |
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“I have worked within the confines of a realist painter, depicting moments. I think my paintings are far more about the experience of life, than “gay life”.” 2002 |
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“Realism, Classicism, Romanticism…I really do not think too much about what “style” I am painting in. I taught myself, so I guess it is my own style. I’m sure that I have been greatly affected (both positively and negatively, both consciously and subconsciously) by everything my eyes have seen. My mind processes this information into an image, and my right hand creates a painting. I hope that my paintings inspire, entertain, provoke, challenge, and in a small way make this world a more beautiful place to live. I hope that they live on long after all of us.” 2004 |
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Steve Walker Toronto, Canada |
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