Art & Life with Stephen Santore

Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephen Santore.

Stephen, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I have been driven to create ever since I can remember. Even in kindergarten I loved using those great smelling bright wax crayons, delicious white paste and those really dull and hard to control scissors. They hurt to use. Where were Fiskars back then? I also remember, even then, having a love of life and people, and feeling a genuine desire to understand what this life is all about.

My favorite class in grade school wasn’t even a class! It was art, which was usually, but not always, offered once every last Friday of the month. I did a lot of extra credit projects just because I could create stuff. One of my teachers suggested I enter a Philadelphia poster contest. I did and won second place. It was a neat feeling, but doing the work was what really had me holed. In high school I spent the majority of my study periods reading and looking through the arts and photography section of the library. There was no “internet”! And, after all these years, I still cherish, and use, the red metal toolbox used to keep art supplies for his high school art classes. It looks its age.

During my first semester at Haverford College, I decided to pursue art and design professionally. This was a great school, but not the best I thought for art and design. So, I applied to a few art schools with the hope, but not the surety, of being admitted. I was so excited and fortunate to get into The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. While there, I was able to study human anatomy under Robert Beverly Hale, which was a great gift. During my term there, I was accepted into Rhode Island School of Design. Frankly, I loved The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. It was a great fit, but my visit to RISD was exciting. There was so much happening there! I went and received a BFA in illustration, with significant course work in product design. At RISD I was blessed to study under some remarkable talent, such as David Macauley, Chris Van Allsburg, Akira Arita, Mahler Ryder, Lorraine Shemish and many other superb and dedicated professionals. In addition, and quite importantly, I learned a great deal from many of my fellow students there. These people were amazing talents. There were many times I looked around and wondered how I ever was accepted. But I was! And while there, I was able to study human anatomy for artists and designers taught at Brown University School of Medicine by George Emil Erikson, M.D. What an experience.

After finishing, I worked for over 20 years executing illustration, storyboarding and product design and development for organizations such as BBDO, Chiat/Day, NWAyer, Disney, Waterford Crystal, Lenox, Wilton Armetale and Teleflora. I was even able to cram in a year of teaching at Art Center College of Design during that busy time, which I loved, but just did not have the time to continue. I also spent many fruitful years designing product for St. George Crystal.

Through the years I developed a keen interest in the work of Carl Jung, Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers. I became certified in the administration and interpretation of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator®, a psychological type assessment used as a tool to assist in the verification of one’s psychological type. I was designated a master practitioner of the assessment and currently work part of my time as a certification instructor for college, university and independent career counselors, nationwide, with a terrific group of professionals at GS Consultants. I also maintain my own private practice. There is true synergy between my work with psychological type and my creative work.

I now balance the work I love most: image making, inclusive of painting, drawing and photography, and the study, teaching and application of psychological type. My artwork has been shown at The Student Show of The Society of Illustrators in New York, the Woods-Gerry Gallery of Rhode Island School of Design, The Society of Illustrators West in Los Angeles, The University of California Santa Barbara, The Laguna Art Festival/Art Affair and the San Diego Art Institute. I have also exhibited in the group show “HUE + ME”, in Provo, Utah, and The Weight of the World: A Contemporary Art Exhibition of Affect and Reason, at Arizona State University. My work has also been shown at The Art Museum, Idaho Falls, ID, the Willard Arts Center in Idaho Falls, ID, The Kate Ashton Gallery, The Lyceum Gallery, and a one man show in the City Hall Gallery of Solana Beach. My work is also in private collections in Berlin, the United Kingdom, and throughout the United States.

I am most fortunate to call San Diego, California, my home.

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I feel an absolute joy that comes from the smell, touch and use of paints and canvas and materials of all kinds. I have loved cameras and photography since I can remember. I am drawn to the observation and contemplation of what exists around us, within us and within me. I believe I have a sense, and am in awe, of the limitless possibilities before us.

I am truly driven to create paintings, drawings, photographs, and images of any kind, that reflect these feelings and considerations. I strive to intuitively mix colors and apply them and reapply them and remix them and alter the media until it appears that something happens: Until it feels I have found an image that speaks. Maybe even sings or shouts or cries. There becomes an affinity between what is there on that canvas or paper or in the lens and what is here within my heart and soul.

I try to have no limits or boundaries. I will just as easily take my camera and wave it around, experimenting with light and exposure and ISO, as I will set up my tripod and shoot with mirror up and wireless shutter to minimize motion. I make many of the tools I use to apply paint and charcoal and pastel and whatever medium/s I am using. For me, the process is always changeable, using any means to get to an image. And incorporating in that process all that I have learned.

I wonder a great deal about the infinite connections between each one of us, and just what each other human being might see and feel in this work.

The images I make begin and end as exploration. Each one is separate, yet related. Each one is a step attached to endless steps. Each one is a curious struggle, some with several images below the surface. The process brings to me a heightened sense of being and a need to learn more, to live and love more, and to create more. It never ends. It will never be complete, yet doing the work helps me to become more of a complete being.

Artists rarely, if ever pursue art for the money. Nonetheless, we all have bills and responsibilities and many aspiring artists are discouraged from pursuing art due to financial reasons. Any advice or thoughts you’d like to share with prospective artists?
Receiving stable and adequate income from fine art is not easy, at least for me. I have always found that having some other form of regular income is necessary. I have worked as a production artist, illustrator, design director and currently augment my income as a psychological type professional, serving on the board of the San Diego Association of Psychological Type as past president and member at large. This is perhaps the best alignment I have ever had, as the psychological work dovetails beautifully with my approach to creating images, and vice versa.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
Come say hello in person at the group show, “I DIDN’T FOLLOW YOUR ADVICE”, at the Brokers Building on July 7th from 7pm to 11pm, curated by Shannon McKee (@shannon_mckee), who has worked diligently gathering a group of 7 artists along her journey.

I welcome your visiting/following me on Instagram @stephensantore, or, if you are not on Instagram, you can see my gallery here: www.instagram.com/stephensantore/. And, you can see much of my work on my site at www.stephensantore.com I look forward to meeting you!

Contact Info:

• Address: stephen santore studio
  2834 La Mirada Drive
  Suite E
  Vista, CA 92081
• Website: www.stephensantore.com
• Phone: 760-576-5055
• Email: stephen@stephensantore.com
• Instagram: @stephensantore
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/stephen.santore.1

Image Credit:
Stephen Santore

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