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-There really is no place in Seattle
that isn't worth painting.
There's always something in the landscape
that's giving a narrative to the location.
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Not just the buildings, but the garbage, the graffiti.
The way the space is used gives it a wonderful narrative.
It's a bit like doing a portrait.
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You paint Seattle,
and you can make it about what the lighting is at sunset.
But if you really pay attention, it's a living organism.
It's constantly changing.
That idea of documenting in a way is not documenting,
it's meditating on the place.
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When I go to a location, I don't know why I chose it.
Something catches my eye.
I want to discover what it's saying,
and painting it is what helps me know why.
I like telling stories.
My actual degree is in theater.
I didn't think of it as becoming an artist at all in my life.
But when I went to college and I thought,
"You know, I'm gonna take an art class"
and I took the drawing class and I flunked.
And he was like, "Well, if you come back to class,
and make it up, I will change your grade."
And I did.
The result of that is they offered me a scholarship.
Something happened in graduate school
that I didn't realize at the time was a moment for me.
I was doing a portrait of a model,
and then the model had to leave.
What I ended up doing is painting the model out
of the painting and just painting the room
that the model was in.
And so people knew more about that person
with them not being in the painting
because they paid attention to all the extra stuff,
all of the details of the room.
And when I started painting landscapes, made a connection.
It became not about the atmosphere of capturing
the light of this moment,
but what is the personality of this moment?
My painting process is really quite layered,
at least, I'd say three layers of color as I go towards detail
and general to specific.
As I do the second layer, it's going to look more realistic.
I'm trying to put layers so that when someone looks at it,
if that person that's at the gallery and sees it
and they're a construction mogul creating the buildings downtown,
they go, "Oh, look, he's captured the things
that I've been creating."
But I also want the person that was on that street
and eating a bag of Doritos to go,
"Hey, those are the Doritos I threw in the gutter."
I want the person that did the graffiti to go, "Oh, yeah.
That's me. I'm in there as well."
I'm hoping that the end result of that layering
really is inclusive.
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-One of the most exciting aspects
of having a realist painter
who works at the level of Michael Stasinos
is the excitement that people feel when they see his work.
-I think it's awesome. It just looks so real.
Like, I don't know.
Like, the scenery jumped out into the canvas.
And he's just putting the finishing touches on it.
It just looks magnificent. Wow.
-You can be 50 feet away from this,
and it hails you from that far away.
And as they get closer to the painting,
they realize how minute the details are in this,
and they will stand in front of this painting
for 10 or 15 minutes, just to see the level of work,
which is absolutely incredible.
-I think that art is my drug.
I go through withdrawals
and I get kind of antsy and upset
if I am not doing it.
It is a way that I'm able to connect to the world
that, um...[laughs]
...I don't think I can connect in any other way.
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It's so meaningful for me.
I think that's what painting does for me.
It's a way of connecting.
♪♪
-See more of Michael's work at michaelstasinos.com
and at his Seattle gallery, Woodside/Braseth,
located near the Harbor Steps
on Western Avenue.
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Catch Art Zone Friday nights at eight and anytime online
at seattlechannel.org/artzone.
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