LIFE'S NEW BRUSH
story by Pat Wick

     Today Roderick Eugene Stevens II is receiving impressive accolades for his photo realism paintings, even though most of his adulthood has been focused on capturing images on film.
     Only 18 months ago, he was unemployed and broke. He recognized a need to get re-focused on something of his own. Though he was in no mood to paint, he picked up brushes, paint and put more than 60 hours into a self portrait.
     "I had no choice, but I made a choice. It was a therapeutic thing." he said.
     Remembering that summer, Roderick said, "I wasn't doing anything else and it came out the best thing I have ever done, by far. Something happened."
     While he was still processing the information on exactly what had happened, he continued to paint. His second painting was from a photo of his son playing his drums in the rain. Roderick thought it too was good.
     "I surprised myself", he said.
     He sent some digital images of the two paintings to friends, who mistook them for actual photos. Driven to challenge himself, he looked for something difficult to paint and settled on an old-fashioned green glass Coke bottle.
     "Glass is difficult," Roderick said. "It's organic and intense - so much is going on."
     Those paintings looked good, too. So, he painted another and another. People who saw his paintings thought he could get them into some galleries. The first local gallery to exhibit a Roderick photo realism painting was 55 Main in Bisbee. He also started to attend weekend art shows - a lot of work, with some success and some sales.
    Ben Onachila, manager of 55 Main, said about Roderick's work: "Most people can't believe it's a painting. His work is so exact, it looks like a photo, but it's not. He has an ability to capture light reflection and refraction. They just can't believe anybody can do that with a paint brush."
     Roderick enjoys meeting other artists, and has been encouraged by them and appreciates their suggestions and advice on do's and don'ts. They've given me a ton of support." he said.

(above) - Here I'm working on "cans-o-paint" on a 4'x4' sheet of Masonite. The story: One day last year, frustrated with the fact that I live and show in the Southwest, but don't paint Southwestern art, I drove all over this beautiful, high-desert county with my daughter and a camera searching for "Southwestern" imagery that might appeal to me. I COULDN'T FIND IT! As much as I love to hike around and admire my corner of the desert, I'm not so inspired to paint it. Meanwhile, I stopped to visit a friend at his "Chicken-Frog Ranch" that day, and as I stepped out of my car, this pile of old rusted house paint cans immediately caught my eye  .  . and my lens!

(left) A few friends came by to visit me in Palm Springs, including long time filmmaking/writing buddy, Christine from Christine, Ink. I got that beatnik look workin' for me here, eh?

(below) I was featured in the Sierra Vista Herald (our local newspaper) this week. Since my deconstructed photo-realism concept is my primary focus at the moment, and I'm not ready to throw that out there yet, I'm going to use the rest of this edition to share the article. Clicking on the image below will take you to a larger version of the first page, but I've included all of the text left and below. I must warn you - it gets a bit  .  .  . melodramatic for the usual content of my noozledders.

     From his originals, archival quality prints are made, called giclee's on canvas, which he says have more accurate color. He continues to attend weekend art shows. He said he had a single $40 sale at one show in North Scottsdale.
     "But I can laugh about it now." he said.
     Less than two weeks later, the contacts he made at that show resulted in nearly $30,000 in sales, including a request from Rod Barker to paint a horse for the series 'Trail Of Painted Ponies'. In November, his first original sold for $4,500. Then two more sold soon thereafter at diifferent galleries.
     That was a giddy day." he said.
     But how did Roderick, a 1985 Buena High School graduate, fast-food manager and one-man movie maker get to the point of being broke and then so quickly find himself propelled into a booming art career?
     He says he carried the responsibilities of an adult very early in life. At 10, he got himself and his Down's Syndrome brother off to school after his mother woke him before she left for work. Every afternoon he hurried from school to meet his brother's bus, fearing the ire of the bus driver should he be late.
     This was his life, every morning, every afternoon of every school day for several years.
     "I had nothing to compare it to, so it was no big deal." Roderick said.
     If it wasn't a normal childhood, he didn't know it.
     "Years later when I did, I didn't know it was a problem." he said.
     It was only when he had his own children that he could see the position he'd been put in so young.
     "I was raised by a single mom I now recognize was very depressed and unavailable." He said.
     Their mother died when he was 24. His brother Andy, then 16, came to live with Roderick, his wife and young daughter. By then, Stevens had moved up to manager of a local fast-food restaurant. But from the time he was little, he always wanted to make movies, so in 1990 he moved to California to attend a film technical school. He came back to Arizona in 1992, now the father of two children (Melissa and Roderick III).
     I didn't want my children in L.A." he said.
     He worked at whatever paying jobs came his way in Arizona and sometimes traveled to California, doing commercials, training videos, and his own projects. He did directing and producing until 1999, when he discovered the part of filmmaking that really appealed to him was the photography.
   As a cinematographer, Roderick had more success, making 25 feature films, music videos and even shooting for "America's Most Wanted"
     Chris Wick, a friend of Roderick's since they were in the seventh grade, said his friend's success has not surprised him. How quickly it came has.
     "He has a certain drive to achieve things," Chris said. "He wants to see what he can do and has no personal barriers that hold him back. For so long he's had no way to turn back and is relentless in pursuing the things he wants to come to fruition. Once, he got all these different pieces of equipment and computers to work together and I told him I admired how much he knew about computers. He said he wasn't really into computers, he just had no other choice but to make it work."
     "His work in fast food - 14 hour days, the challenge of working with food, customers - means working that hard is just normal to him. I only fear that even if he becomes really famous, he'll never let anybody else do anything. He'll be doing all the work himself."
     Chris said Roderick is that way in everything he does, he works on his car and wants to build his own house.
     In filmmaking, Chris sad, "Someone would have a good idea and a low budget and hire him to do the technical work. Rod does everything to deliver the best possible product even for someone who doesn't know a lot. He's made something like 20 features. He's dedicated."
     While a lot of people exclaim at his being able to paint what he does, Chris said what's even more to the point is: "It is how he sees."
     Roderick, now 38, took a few painting classes in school, but his years of work behind the camera have been more significant. He believes what sets his paintings apart from other photo realists has a lot to do with his photography, his attention to motion, light, and optics.
     "While they aren't fully abstract, they are less representational," Roderick said. "It's more about capturing a certain energy."
     For the near future he plans to paint. But he sees the possibility the financial success of his paintings may provide funds for other film projects. Filmmaking remains important to him.
     So, for a young man given to years of "taking care of others," he is now focused on being responsible to himself, and the results are suitable for framing.