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Steve Bleicher's
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Bio
Steve Bleicher is a tenured professor in the Art Department at Coastal Carolina University. Previously he was a senior faculty member in Arts and Humanities Program at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. He received both his BFA and MFA from Pratt Institute. Steven has worked and taught at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, the State University of New York, Brooklyn College and Marian College in addition to serving as the Assistant Dean of the School of Art and Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology.
In October 2004, Steven’s book Contemporary Color: Theory and Use was published by Delmar Press and Thompson Learning. It is a comprehensive text on color, focusing on digital color and its relationship to other new technologies as well as traditional color theory. Other chapters include color psychology, perception and dimensional aspects of color. He is currently writing a book on basic design, tentatively titled Foundations, for Prentice Hall. The text is planned to be the most extensive and comprehensive of its type and will include conceptual thinking, drawing and color theory as well as all aspects of two and three-dimensional design.
Over the past two years Steven has been a visiting lecturer and consultant on color psychology. This has included speaking being a guest contributor to the television program, Today in South Florida for a series of segments on using color effectively. He is scheduled to speak at a number of institutions this coming year including Jackson State University. Most recently, Steven has been a color consultant for Tilson Communications and Staples, Inc.
Steven is also an accomplished artist whose work is included in many major collections. His artwork is widely exhibited both nationally and internationally in numerous solo and group exhibitions.
Artist Statement
My body of work has an underlying theme of Americana. Currently, I'm using the subject matter of great old highways such as Route 66 and the Dixie Highway as a point of departure. So much of American life has been and continues to revolve around our mobility, highways, and their effect on our lives. These themes are essential to my work.
The central images in these works are a continuation from earlier work. They are a combination of graphite and digital elements, starting with photographs or sketches from the selected landscape or site. I then couple these images with maps and souvenirs or mementos from the local area. While many of the items have a kitsch quality to them, they are not meant to have a condescending tone, but are really celebrations of our uniquely American zeal for collecting, bringing back souvenirs from our travels and vacations. These items directly relate to the imagery and maps adding additional components or layers of meaning to the work.
The souvenir elements augment the images giving a more complete sense of place. In addition, they provide an editorial or narrative component to the work and are also another means for viewers to be able to engage the work. The pieces are displayed in shadowbox frames that are large enough to hold both the two and three-dimensional elements in a confined and unified space.
My work is about remembrance and recollection. It's about our human need to capture a space in time, a fleeting moment and preserve it.
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