July 10, 2018

Check out Stephen Moody’s Artwork

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephen Moody.

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I grew up in a home where original art adorned our walls. My mother loved art and took me to the world’s greatest museums to see it firsthand. I remember my first trip to Paris with her – she took me to the Jeu de Paume Museum and we walked in and there was Manet’s painting of Olympia. I was 13 years old and I was looking at a nude woman. I was young and wasn’t used to such imagery. She saw my eyes looking at the floor and she asked me to look at the painting with her. She proceeded to tell me the significance of the painting, how she was a Courtesan who had a face and how the art community abhorred the painting in 1863. She proceeded to tell me that Manet had dissolved classical illusionism and re-invented painting as something that spoke to its own condition of being a painted representation….the birth of impressionism.

I have to say that was the defining moment where I saw the human body as a work of art. I grew up in a very religious household and community. In my mid twenties, I opened a portrait studio and started photographing scantily clad women in lingerie and less. By today’s standard everyone has seen photos like that. But in Salt Lake City in the mid 80’s that was unheard of. It didn’t take long for the media to run a story on me that went national and soon I had women flying in from all over the country to have me create beautiful sensual portraits of them to give to the one they loved.

I got bored very quickly of the lingerie photography and started creating fine art portraits that were impressionistic of children and families. I did all of my own printing with a screen that I created. In the darkroom I would print with a magenta filter, then turn my screen 1/3 turn and turn on the enlarger with a green filter and repeat the process with a blue filter. It created a pointillistic print and when you peeled the paper from the emulsion and adhered it to canvas it looked like an impressionistic painting.

Please tell us about your art. What do you do / make / create? How? Why? What’s the message or inspiration, what do you hope people take away from it? What should we know about your artwork?
In 2003 I had my first fine art show…..ever…….in Scottsdale. I was very nervous as my work was like nothing anyone had seen. It was a culmination of everything I had done in my professional life. It is a mixture of ‘movement, color and vibration’.

I had this vision in my mind of what I wanted to create and it involved a nude woman underwater. I started out with a Nikonos (Nikon underwater camera) without any success. I then started experimenting with my camera, lighting (w/o getting electrocuted) and backdrops in the water. I just wasn’t getting the results I wanted.

A friend of mine told me that there was a Shaman in town from Australia and that I should go see her. I did. I did 3 sessions with her. The last session took several hours and I was exhausted. I went straight to bed when I got home. When I woke up the next morning I knew how to create the artwork that had been in my creative banks for years. I asked my girlfriend to get in the pool and we started working with amazing results.

I made up 5 32×50 canvases. I used acrylic paint to enhance the imagery and took them to a gallery in Old Towne. The owner loved them and asked if they could show them at the art walk that was 3 days away. I agreed.

They hung my artwork in the front of the gallery. As the sun went down and the gallery lights came up people could see through the windows my large multi-media paintings, with bold colors and ethereal designs through the windows and people flocked into the gallery to see this new artwork. They sold 3 of my 5 pieces that night.

When I show my work I love to sit back and listen to people. Everyone sees something different.

But everything comes full circle. I am creating my portrait art again. This time with oil paint. I love photography and my photographic career was very good to me. But I love painting. There is something that is very satisfying starting with a blank canvas and painting a work of art.

My 7th grade art teacher told me I had no talent and that I needed to transfer out of her class or I was going to fail. My mother didn’t like the sound of that so she took me out of that school and put me in another. But it was that moment where I picked up a camera and dropped the paint brush. It took 35 years before I felt enough courage to pick up a paint brush again.

Now I am creating the best work of my life. Everything I have learned in my life is being used as a resource in my artwork. The best part is I know that my paintings are going to be around for many generations – passed down from one to the next.

In 2007 one of Stuart Weitzman’s account executives came to one of my shows. He was taken back with my work and told me that my work needed to be on silk. He told me they were working with a popular artist and had they known about me that they would be working with me.

The next day I was on the phone to Italy looking for someone who could put my designs on silk. I found a man who’s family had been making silk products since the 1700’s. He told me that he didn’t do what I wanted but one of his family members was doing just that. I made contact and in 45 days I had my first tie line of wearable art – hand made in Italy.

Currently I am designing shoes, dresses, scarves, ties, men’s coats and more. Many of the items I am making are made to order for each client. But it is very humbling when someone not only loves your artwork but wants to wear it.

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
My work is readily available to see. I have a website; I am also represented by Singulart in Paris. I am on Facebook and Instagram and I show locally several times a year. I had a great show at the Unexpected Art Gallery in downtown Phoenix in December and I have a new show coming up at the ‘Everything Beautiful Artwalk’ Gallery on High Street on March 14th, 6-10 pm. If you would like to be alerted as to when my next show will be please go to my website www.MoodyFineArt.com and enter your email address to be kept current on my artwork and events.

People can best support my artwork by coming to my art exhibits, liking and sharing my Instagram posts….and leaving comments – I always like to hear what people feel when they see my work.

What do you think about conditions for artists today? Has life become easier or harder for artists in recent years? What can cities like ours do to encourage and help art and artists thrive?
I am anti ‘Political Correctness’. Art has pushed the boundaries for centuries. It seems like political correctness is making artists tone down their work by shaming those who create art that expresses content that goes against the grain.

Many comedians are now rising up against political correctness and I applaud them. None of us should be silenced…..especially artists.

When I was growing up – art pushed the limits – sometimes too far – sometimes not far enough. If we don’t allow artists to voice what is inside of them then we suffer as a community as there is only one voice instead of many, one viewpoint instead of many. Art needs to be unleashed, creative and pushing boundaries.

Contact Info:

Address: Scottsdale, AZ 85254
Website: https://www.moodyfineart.com , https://www.singulart.com/en/artist/stephen-moody-10545
Phone: 480.544.0295
Email: info@moodyfineart.com
Instagram: @stephenmoodyartist
Facebook: http://facebook.com/stephenmoodyartist/
Twitter: @stephenmoodyartist