Thanks for visiting my site. It's gratifying to be able to share my work with you in this way.
Educated at the Kootenay School of Art in Nelson, British Columbia, Canada, Steve Kergin pursued a career in Illustration and Graphic Design for many years. He currently works as a self-employed visual artist in the suburb of Colwood near Victoria, Canada where he shares a home-based studio with his wife, Lee (Lowther) Kergin, herself a painter.
Whether conceptual, abstract or traditional representation, Steve views visual art as a fundamental form of communication that allows an artist to express a unique inner vision that reflects the experience of many people:
My work represents an exploration of how contemporary, often urbanized, people interact with the rhythms of our world. I express my observations through the creation of metaphorical images which are highly symbolic and stylized in choice of subject matter, colour usage, materials and presentation. In terms of subject matter, I have often found myself creating representational images involving ambiguity or duality — safety vs. danger, peace vs. turmoil, etc. My goal is to produce images which are visually stimulating and thought provoking for an audience of varying interpretive experience.
My older work incorporating aboriginal symbols reflected my efforts to help reconcile the conflicts between our historic and contemporary cultures through developing an understanding of those common experiences that bind all people throughout history. Other pieces from my past, primarily representative airbrush illustrations, explore themes of connection or disconnection with our natural environment and its inhabitants — human and non-human. Although my new work is still quite representational, it is much less traditional and has become more stylized, collage-like and symbolic.
Recent pieces represent a significant change of style and a new confidence in me in the use of a variety of media for the production of low relief assemblages. This new process allows me a much greater range of expression while maintaining the appearance of simplicity which I value. In addition, creating assemblages incorporating found materials has led me back to a more organic, spontaneous approach to image making that was more typical of my earliest work. Using the character of the objects themselves to suggest the direction of a particular piece has opened me up to design and symbolic possibilities that I might not have discovered otherwise. It has turned out to be an exciting and stimulating development for me.
Through all of my images, whatever the style, I hope to communicate my insights and enduring optimism that, individually and collectively, we can find positive resolutions to our challenges that will enable us to rise above them to a higher understanding of our human potential.
