Saturday, June 28, 2014

Steve Pietzsch Rules The Art World!

Today has been great. Last night my dear friend Donna Gable Hatch sent me a sneak preview of the fabulous article that she wrote about artist, Steve Pietzsch, who is one of Kinky's, Tony's and my dearest friends.

After I read Donna's wonderful piece about Steve, that appeared in today's, The Kerrville Daily Times, I sent Donna and Steve e-mails to let them know just how much I loved the story. Then I called Kinky to let him know about it. He was thrilled about our friend, Donna Gabel Hatch, writing the story about Steve.

Then I sent Steve another e-mail:

"Steve! Donna just sent me the article that she wrote about you and it is totally awesome! Congrats! It's so funny how thinks work out! Last week at Chet's In Dining Hall Concert, out here, I introduced Carol to Donna and later on, Carol introduces you to Donna. I love serendipity and how things just seem to work out. I am so thrilled for you. Nancy


P.S. Thanks for using Tony's picture. Donna told me that they were and that the paper was giving Tony credit for his picture of you. Tomorrow I will definitely be blogging about all of this. Cheers!"

Then Steve immediately shot me back an e-mail agreeing with me. So, I guess you could say, "Chet O'Keefe's In Dining Hall Concert was magical in many ways."

Now Fast forward to this afternoon. Around 1:30, while Tony was gone to Medina to buy us a copy of The Kerrville Daily Times, I had just met Gabriele, from Germany, and her lovely daughter Xenia, who lives in Texas and was showing them our trailer when Kinky calls me. "Nance, Sean Rima is over here and would it be okay for us to come over for a visit?"

Ten minutes later, Tony returned home, about five minutes earlier than Kinky and Sean and his daughters arrived. When I showed Kinky the newspaper article he immediately sat down and began reading it. And to say the least, "He loved Donna's article and was thrilled for Steve." In fact, Kinky said, "As soon as I get back to the Lodge—I'm calling Steve."




Kinky, Sean, Gabriele, Xenia, Tony and I had a great visit and we also did a lot of laughing. And before Kinky, Sean and his girls left, I played them Chet's song Ode To Cousin Nancy, which they thought was beautiful. 

Tony and I had a wonderful time visiting with Gabby and her daughter and discovered that we had so much in common. About an hour later, the women followed me over to Kinky's, because he had invited them to come over for a visit on his front porch. It was a good time for all and here's a picture that I took of them.


Now enjoy reading Donna Gable Hatch's article, in The Kerrville Daily Times, about Steve Pietzsch, because Kinky just called me to invite me to come over for a visit.


A twist of fate leads artist Steve Pietzsch to his home on the hill

By Donna Gable Hatch
Features Editor

     Standing on the deck of his small teal green cabin overlooking the valley below — 10 acres of which belongs to him — Steve Pietzsch is a happy man. “This is my slice of heaven on earth,” Pietzsch said. “It took me awhile to get here, but I’m here.” 
     To the outside world, Steve Pietzsch’s life was picture perfect. For nearly three decades, he was an in-demand illustrator working for high-profile clients, including Texas Monthly, Rolling Stone magazine and Disney. But to Pietzsch, “something was missing.”
     That something became clearer to him when he and a drunken driver crossed paths in 2003.
     “I was walking on a sidewalk on Congress Avenue in Austin, when a drunk guy on a motorcycle veered into me,” Pietzsch said from his artist’s retreat near the Medina County border.
The collision resulted in a fractured humerus — the long, tubular bone that makes up the upper arm — that required surgical placement of a metal plate, a fractured left leg with lacerations and a skin graft.
     “I spent 10 days in Brackenridge Hospital and then a few months of rehab.”
     While in rehabilitation-mode, Pietzsch began to re-evaluate his life.
     “The experience changed my perspective about waiting much longer to retire,” he said.
     At the age of 57, he took the money he was awarded as a result of the accident and put a down payment on a piece of property that fell into his lap.
     “It was time. This was yet another clear choice.”
     One corner of his property line is marked by a 3 ½-foot tall sculpture of an angel, which stands watch over the valley.
     “I have now realized my dream of becoming a starving artist,” Pietzsch said. “No assignments, no deadlines, no ideas other than my own, and, of course, no money — yet.”

Respected in his field
     D.J. Stout, the former art director at Texas Monthly, with whom Pietzsch worked, said Pietzsch’s talent is as big as the Lone Star State.
     “Steve is such an amazing artist and a true artist, and he has that rare gift: the Texas state of mind. He understands the Texas myths, the Texas brag, all the things that make Texas what it is — and his art reflects that.”
     The two met through Fred Woodward, Stout’s predecessor at Texas Monthly.
     “What I really like about Steve’s work is that his work is playful, original and he has great concepts. He’d sent me this painting of the Earth, and the only state on the planet,” Stout said. “I knew right away that it would be perfect for the 20th anniversary of the magazine.”
     The cover was so popular, he said, “that we had T-shirts made, and people everywhere were wearing them.”

An artist in training
     Pietzsch graduated from the University of North Texas, formerly North Texas State University, in 1973, with a degree in advertising art. After graduation, he took a job as a junior art director at the Bloom Agency in Dallas.
     Two years later, he began a two-year apprenticeship at The SketchPad Studio, an illustration, graphic design and writing studio in Arlington. It was in this den of creativity and experimentation that his star began to shine.
     “I owe everything of my illustration career to my two years working in The SketchPad,” he said. “I left my junior art director job for the chance to get into that special place; probably the most important and lucky things to happen to me.”
     His mentor was the late Don Ivan Punchatz, who founded SketchPad in 1970. Dubbed the Godfather of Dallas Illustration, Punchatz was internationally regarded as one of the best in the business. His surreal art graced the covers of popular horror and science-fiction paperbacks, National Geographic, Esquire, National Lampoon and Rolling Stone magazines and the first “Star Wars” film poster. His painting of American psychologist and behaviorist B.F. Skinner is in the permanent collection of The National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.
     It was at Punchatz’s side that Pietzsch honed his craft and found his niche.
     “I came out of there with a portfolio that set me off on 15 years of freelance illustrating.”
     Pietzsch’s freelance lifestyle afforded him the kind of freedom that allowed him to work and play whenever he wanted.
     Clients included American Airlines, Avon Books, Bantam Books, Atlantic Monthly, New England Monthly, Texas Monthly, D magazine, Omni magazine, Neiman-Marcus, Greyhound, Boy Scouts of America, Hyatt Hotels, Dr Pepper and Rolling Stone magazine, among others.
     Working for Rolling Stone, he said, was surreal.
     “It was exhilarating for an old hippie like me to have the good fortune to have been able to work for that icon.”
     But 15 years later, the solitary life of a freelance artist was growing stale.
     “Alone at home in my studio, the thrill was slowing down, as well as the business, and I was nearing burnout,” he recalled. “Then, out of the blue, some artist friends called to let me know they were all taking jobs at a video game company that was in need of artists.”
     The company was Origin Systems, a video game developer most famous for the Wing Commander, a groundbreaking space combat simulation computer game, and Ultima, a fantasy role-playing series, considered the seminal games of the genre.
     “The company realized that games in the future were going to be loaded with art and animation and that they needed to hire and train real artists to do the work, rather than programmers with limited artistic skills.”
     Pietzsch was offered a full-time position.
     “It was mind-blowing at the time. Here, I would be creating objects in 3D space and putting them in motion," he said. "After working on a 2D surface in static time all these years, this looked like an opportunity to begin a new creative endeavor. I couldn’t sleep that night and again it became clear that this was something I couldn’t pass up.”
     It was, as Star Trek’s Captain Kirk would say, a new world, “where no one has gone before,” and Pietzsch loved every minute of it.
     “It’s fascinating to think that millions of people have seen my art, even though they didn’t know — or care — that it was I who did it,” he said.
     For the next 15 years, he stayed in the video game industry, working for several studios in Austin, including ones owned by Electronic Arts, Microsoft and Disney.
     He was proficient in Photoshop, built and textured 3D models, created 3D environments and did some animation.
     “It was exciting to work on a team with brilliant young minds and ride the wave of the future with 2D and 3D technology,” he said.
     But the winds within shifted, and he began to feel it was time for yet another change.
     “I was becoming a bit weary of work in general, and I started thinking about getting back to doing art with traditional tools,” he said.
     Little did he know that an evening stroll on a sidewalk in downtown Austin “in the wrong place at the wrong time,” and an out-of-control motorcyclist who would veer into his path, would set the course of the rest of his life.
     But he has no regrets, and standing on the deck of his country cabin on his “slice of heaven,” Pietzsch spoke contentedly about his art and his new life.
     “I am trying to assemble about 20 pieces or so for a one-man show, probably within the next year,” he said. “Most of the subject matter will be related to this area.”
     The title of his one-man show is clear: “Hill Country Surrealism,” because that’s what his life’s ride has been. Surreal.
     His favorite quote, he said, is from American painter Robert Henri, and it is through Henri’s perspective that he lives his life, Pietzsch said: “After all, the goal is not making art. It is living a life. Those who live their lives will leave the stuff that is really art. Art is a result. It is the trace of those who have led their lives.”


If you want to check out more of Steve' Pietzsch's fabulous art click here.

Y'all have a great evening!

1 comment:

AustinCreativeArtCenter said...

I love this man he is the most talented person I have ever met. Peace&love zoey