Steven Wise
Artist's Statement
September 2005

alpha/beta projects
Since 2003

I have developed a process for making images. This process routinely involves establishing a set of limitations before I begin a body of work. First, I impose a set of restrictions on my activity of painting, drawing, or printing so that I must operate within a narrow range of formal possibilities. Second, I choose a finite number of works to be completed as a suite of related images. I have structured my activity of work so that I can concentrate on material, touch, texture, and surface.

Form is a consequence of the activity of work. Form becomes content. Although many projects have subjects, content is neither pre-scribed nor assigned to individual works. But rather, content is discovered while making images under a controlled set of conditions imposed on my activity of work.

I have mapped a plan of action based on the letters of the alphabet. Each letter represents a body of work. Each work is labeled with a letter and a chronological numeral (A01, A02, A03, A04, etc.). The project is named alpha/beta. If I complete one letter of the alphabet each year, I will finish my life/works/projects at the age of 56.

alpha/beta life/works/projects

A...always painting small works on board (2001 – present) B...ten paintings on canvas (2002 – 2003)
C...ten paintings on canvas of WAVES (2002 – 2004)
D...
E...
F...twelve paintings of abstract FACES (1998 – 2004)
G...
H...
I...ten large scale paintings of ISABOT drawings (2004 – present)
J...
K...
L...
M...
N...
O...
P...paintings on PAPER (2003 – present)
Q...
R...REJECTION LETTERS, pencil and collage on bond paper (1998 – 2005)
S...SCULPTURE (2007 – present)
T...
U...
V...
W...
X...
Y...
Z...

...Steven Wise

Steven Wise studied at Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia before receiving his BA from Swarthmore College and then his MFA from the University of Iowa. He has shown at The Sheldon Art Galleries in St. Louis, at ArtSway in Hampshire, England, at the Klein Art Gallery at the Science Center in Philadelphia, and was included in Art From the Land of Wal-Mart that was shown at the David Hockney Gallery at the Royal College of Art in London, England. Additionally Wise has shown his work throughout the country in Arkansas, Iowa, California and Illinois. Steven Wise lives and works in Rogers, Arkansas.