The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
Last January, world famous Toronto gay artist Steve Walker died at 50
Aloysius J. Gleek:
--- Quote from: Monika on May 19, 2012, 07:46:05 am ---I really find his work beautiful and interesting. There is a stark realism about his paintings and they all strike me as very intimite. They remind me about the line in Brokeback "...lets a panel of the dream slide forward."
I really would like to own a reproduction of the Bareback Mountain painting. It´s so understated - so Brokeback-ish.
--- End quote ---
Somehow I would have known you would like that one, Monika! ;) :)
And you CAN buy the reproduction! :D ;D 8)
http://stevewalkerartist.com/title_list.html
--- Quote ---I am pleased to announce that Lyman-Eyer Gallery in Provincetown, Massachusetts, is now the sole
authorized producer and distributor of canvas reproductions of my paintings. Titles listed below in
white are available in both large and small formats, while those listed in blue are available in small
format only. Please click here to go to the Lyman-Eyer website for more information
--- End quote ---
Aloysius J. Gleek:
http://floridaagenda.com/2012/02/16/artist-steve-walker-passes-iconic-gay-artist-leaves-legacy-of-beauty/
ARTIST STEVE WALKER PASSES
Iconic Gay Artist
Leaves Legacy of Beauty
Posted on 16 February 2012
Internationally- renowned gay artist Steve Walker passed away unexpectedly at his home in Costa Rica on Jan. 4. The news of Walker’s death was released in a written statement by his estate last weekend. No cause of death was included in the written statement by representatives of his estate in Canada.
The work of the artist, who was only 50 when he died, is immediately recognizable by both seasoned art lovers and novices alike, and some of them were painted in South Florida. Most of the Ottawa-native’s work depicts men interacting with each other or with nature. Fort Lauderdale Beach, including the famed Wave Wall, served as the setting for several of his pieces.
Art consumed much of Walker’s earliest childhood: friends say that he started drawing at the age of three or four. A self-taught artist, Walker began painting after a trip to Europe when he was 25. He spent much of that time in Europe touring the great galleries and museums. It was the first time he was exposed to great painting, and the first time he recognized the potential power of the art form.
“I was moved by something that I was capable of doing,” Walker would later recall. His first paintings were done in a somewhat secretive way, as he had no intention of exhibiting or selling them and had no aspirations to becoming a professional artist.
The universal themes he depicted were done without respect to race, gender, socio-economic class, culture, or sexual orientation. However, his work is unique because he conveys these themes through the subjects in his paintings: young gay men.
“Remove the gender of the painting’s subjects and what we have is human relationships in general, and one’s relationship to the world itself,” Walker explained.
The focus of his paintings often depicted sadness and loneliness, to reflect the reality that much of life is sad and lonely. Walker often portrayed people in relationships as separate entities; that is the way he viewed them. He also used a small and consistent palette of colors with which he was comfortable and which became associated with his signature style.
“We started carrying his originals about one-and-a-half years ago,” said Tommy LaFashia, the owner of Gallery XO and himself an artist. Gallery XO is the exclusive Broward County gallery for Walker’s original artwork.
“About four weeks ago, we got a call at about seven one morning from the person who handles Steve’s artwork, telling me that he passed away. He has a sister who is acting as executor and is taking care of the estate and creating a foundation in Steve’s name. They want to make sure they preserve Steve’s legacy and keep his artwork out there.”
LaFashia explained that the estate initially wanted to keep Walker’s death secret until arrangements could be made, and an inventory of his work taken.
“We have four original works at the gallery,” said LaFashia. “We were told by the estate they are not to be sold until [the estate] gets everything together and they can talk to all the galleries. The original artwork will be available at some point, but I’m not sure when that will be.”
Walker’s original pieces at Gallery XO are titled “Platano y Pipa,” “Sculpture Series No. 1,” “Two Umbrellas,” and “Vintage Twilight.”
LaFashia said that he expects the estate to raise the prices on Walker’s artwork, and that the original works will carry a premium price.
Walker is survived by his parents, Gloria and Gilbert Walker, his brother, Kevin, and sister, Marjorie. Another brother, Bruce, predeceased him.
Aloysius J. Gleek:
http://gerryburniebooks.wordpress.com/2012/02/12/bits-and-pieces-2/
Bits and pieces
Steve Walker
by Gerry B
Posted 12/02/2012
An internationally acclaimed and prolific Canadian artist passed away January 4th, 2012, Steve Walker, but I have yet to see a single word about his passing in any Canadian media.
I cannot help but compare this neglect to the coverage being given to the passing of Whitney Houston, who was a) not Canadian, and b) hardly a poster girl for wholesome living.
It is this sort of oversight that frustrates me, BIG TIME. Canada has a wonderful history, a plethora of accomplishments and talent, but unless it’s foreign or multicultural we–and the world–seldom get to hear of it.
End of rant.
Until next time,
Gerry
http://gerryburniebooks.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/a-eulogy-for-steve-walker-artist-and-illustrator-1962-2012/
Bits and pieces
A eulogy for Steve Walker,
Artist and illustrator (1961 – 2012)
by Gerry B
Posted 13/02/2012
Since the Canadian media has so far failed to recognize the passing of a renowned Canadian talent, I have taken it upon myself to write this eulogy for a man I didn’t know, but whom I admire greatly for the following reasons:
Although I did not know Steve Walker personally, or even professionally, I think I would have liked him.
In his biography he comes across as a shy, unassuming person–as most extraordinarily talented people do–for in his own words, “I have always been inclined to let my work speak for itself, believing that should I need to explain it, I have perhaps failed.”
He was born in Ottawa, Ontario, and although his artistic talent was recognized as early as the first grade, his primary ambition was to be an actor, i.e.:
“Despite my artistic talent I was determined to be an actor “when I grew up”. At the age of nineteen, I moved to Toronto, Canada to study theatre at university. Four years later I graduated from university, moved into my own apartment, and embarked on a career as an actor and, of course, waiter.”
It was about then that he discovered his sexual orientation, which seems to have been an evolutionary process as apposed to a revelation—a not uncommon occurrence.
“I remember feeling a strange sense of elation upon having survived childhood, a rural environment, education, and the knowledge that my sexual orientation, (which was never a mystery or problem to me personally), would forever cause some people who never met me and would never know me, to hate me and others like me.”
However all this was about to change in the 1970s when the term “A.I.D.S.” started to circulate around the gay community, not only in Toronto but around the world, and so he turned away from acting in an attempt to “find a cure for the hatred, fear, and ignorance that surrounded so many young men around the world as they lay in hospital beds and drew the last breaths of unfinished lives,” and so he began painting.
Never having painted before, he nonetheless taught himself and began creating paintings, not about gay or homosexual men, per se, but about the things all human beings share.
“Themes of love, attraction, hope, despair, loneliness, the beauty of sky, the perfection of a horizon, the power of a person touching another were given life on pieces of canvas. I created images that came from a place of truth. I tried to make sense of and give order to a world that seemed to know neither.
“It simply never occurred to me to paint about themes in any other context than that of my own life as a person who happens to be gay. I had never had a problem relating to work created by heterosexuals in a heterosexual context. Why should I create paintings whose context was anything other than the truth of my life as a gay man?”
From there he began to display his works in gay restaurants and bars around Toronto—I remember very distinctly seeing some of these at the “Les Cavaliers” club on Church Street (now the “Gay Village”—and in a short while he was exhibiting and selling his work in high end mainstream galleries throughout North America, and reproductions of his work throughout the world.
An epilogue in his own words,
“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 a moment, think and actually feel something. My paintings contain as many questions as answers.
“I hope that in its’silence, the body of my work has given a voice to my life, the lives of others, and in doing so, the dignity of all people.”
***
Requiestat in pace, Steve Walker. I mourn your passing as a gay man; as an admirer of great talent; as a Canadian; and as a person.
Aloysius J. Gleek:
“I remember feeling a strange sense of elation upon having survived childhood, a rural environment, education, and the knowledge that my sexual orientation, (which was never a mystery or problem to me personally), would forever cause some people who never met me and would never know me, to hate me and others like me.”
Sason:
The painting of the little boy is awesome.
He actually resembles my brother quite a lot when he was little.
Not the mouth, but eyes, hair, cheeks, the shape of his face.
My brother didn't/doesn't usually look that sad, though.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version