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Steve Hawkes has been an important part of the Alma Community Art Center since its inception, and continues to teach classes each month. He is currently teaching Everything Graphite, but has done both adult and children’s classes, pen and ink, charcoal, acrylics, and pyrography classes. He is an active member of the Creative Arts Guild, and exhibited several pieces at the last guild show.
Steve was raised in the Ithaca area and attended Ithaca Public Schools. He enjoyed the traditional after-school art projects but, having a grandmother who painted, a father who was a “jack of all trades,” two much older brothers who were talented musicians and artists, all helped to spark Steve’s interests. Sue Diltz, a high school art teacher, became instrumental in further developing Steve’s talents. Sue lived creatively and inspired her students to try different things. She arranged for him to observe classes at Alma College taught by Dr. Bob Rozier, which gave him an opportunity to see and experience different media. Steve works in many media. His favorite is pen and ink but he is most well-known for his work in pyrography. Steve purchased a wood burning pen to do some pieces to decorate his family’s new home, and as the saying goes, “so it began.” He found that the more practice and experience he had doing drawings and paintings, the more experience he could take to his pyrography pieces. Pyrography requires much planning and many layers of heat to turn each piece into an “Old Masters” look. Steve has done all kinds of subjects in pyrography, and each one is personal. He enjoys the interaction between his subjects and the emotional connection with his customers. Steve has done a number of commissioned works. Most recently he did a guitar with pyrography on the neck, back and top, that had to be playable for VIACOM Talent for their event for Pepsi and CMT. He was flown to the event for the presentation and the guitar was a hit. He now has other country music stars interested in the one-of-a-kind guitar for themselves. Alma College contacted Steve to do a painting of the President’s house, to be presented to Dr. Saundra Tracy when the house was renamed in her honor. He has enjoyed the commission work and is looking forward to doing more. Steve is always learning and developing as an artist and he brings his considerable talents to our community. |
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