Steven Rhude - Paintings/Drawings

War Against the Mystics, oil on board, Dyptych, 30" x 36", Steven Rhude A post modern elegy - The Flaming Lips: It overtakes me, It overtakes me It overtakes me... Oh oh oh I It overtakes me, It Master-Slaves me It overtakes me... Oh oh oh I It overtakes me, It overtakes me It overtakes me... Oh oh oh I It overtakes me, It Wakes and Bakes me It overtakes me... Oh oh oh I You know that it isn't real You'll disappear in a black hole You know that it isn't real Floating out of control.... Oh Wow It overtakes me, it overtakes me It overtakes me... Oh oh oh I It overtakes me, It Master-Slaves me It overtakes me... Oh oh oh I And I'm there, looking up at the sky And I'm scared, thinkin' 'bout the way that I Don't understand anything at all... And how it overtakes me... and I am just so small... Do I stand a chance? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4O7aI87E3g Steven Rhude

Circles of Rembrandt, oil on board, 24`x 52`, Steven Rhude, sold

Portrait of the Prophet Isaiah, oil on board, 48" x 48", Steven Rhude Detail Steven Rhude, Wolfville

Press, 2016, Harvest Gallery, Wolfville, Nova Scotia Press, 2016, Harvest Gallery, 2016 Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS

“All of that art-for-art’s-sake stuff is BS,” she declares. “What are these people talking about? Are you really telling me that Shakespeare and Aeschylus weren’t writing about kings? All good art is political! There is none that isn’t. And the ones that try hard not to be political are political by saying, ‘We love the status quo.’ We’ve just dirtied the word ‘politics,’ made it sound like it’s unpatriotic or something.” Morrison laughs derisively. “That all started in the period of state art, when you had the communists and fascists running around doing this poster stuff, and the reaction was ‘No, no, no; there’s only aesthetics.’ My point is that is has to be both: beautiful and political at the same time. I’m not interested in art that is not in the world. And it’s not just the narrative, it’s not just the story; it’s the language and the structure and what’s going on behind it. Anybody can make up a story.” ― Toni Morrison

Dories on the Line, 16" x 26", serigraph, Steven Rhude I’ve looked at this print over the years and still see something different in it each time. It is one of the most simple, yet problematic things I’ve ever done. At first there was some humor in the idea that as a motif it is highly unrealistic – that is, no clothes line could support a dory, or three for that matter. Then I construed the idea that boats are not toys and the fisheries is no laughing matter. Livelihoods are at stake and a culture is emphasized in its most vulnerable and fundamental state. Eventually I've come to see and conclude that this is a political print in that there always has, and probably will always be, something about the Maritimes that is “Hung out to Dry”. I need not look any further than our recent film industry debacle to see this print still has yet to reach its political conclusion. ...

Nude, Copper Plate Etching, 7" x 10", 7/15, Steven Rhude, Harvest Gallery Rare Proof, "At the Wharf", 1st state, 9" x 12", Steven Rhude, Harvest Gallery Rare Proof with original copper plate , "Moon lit Cove" Steven Rhude, Harvest Gallery These three etchings will be in "Press 2016" at Harvest Gallery, Wolfville, NS - opening February 28th. www.harvestgallery.ca Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS