Stephen Hansen

Stephen Hansen started his whimsical Great Moments in Art series in 2014 where he creates parodies of famous paintings by well known artists and adds 3-D paper mache figures interacting with the art.  

“The appeal of this series for me is standing before the easel and painting the painting. It is like putting on a costume and being someone else for a time. The paper mache painters simply represent my thoughts while doing the painting (and this seemed like a good way to learn how to paint). The project started with a Rothko, and the notion that one’s life work might have been accomplished one brilliant weekend with a roller. What if artwork really was, well….work, and paintings were done by painters? It had never occurred to me, until I became involved in this project, to pretend to be someone else for a few days". 

Stephen has been particularly interested in the Impressionists.  From Monet, “Try to forget what objects you have before you - a tree, a house, a field, or whatever. Merely think, 'Here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow,' and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact color and shape, until it gives you your own impression of the scene before you".  

And finally from Cezanne, “Don’t be an art critic. Paint. There lies salvation.”