Artist Statement - Hodge

Artists' Statement
My name is Steve Hodge. I like to work with my hands. I am a visual designer working in the fields of video, animation, music, and drawing. I strive to make original work that has real meaning - I reach for an emotional response from my works, not something that has to be intellectually analyzed or explained to the audience to make sense.

Expression in Mark Making
    I asked random people to help in a project for school. I told them it was a psychology project and didn't give them much time to think about what they were doing before they were doing it. I asked how they were feeling, then gave them a broad brush loaded with ink and had them make a single mark to show me how they felt.
    The hardest part of this project was approaching strangers and asking them to participate. I found a busy spot by the Duck Pond and asked people as they walked by. Some would walk past without even acknowledging that someone had spoken to them. Most would say 'no' and that they had somewhere to be and something to do. Some would stop and help, and those people's marks are the ones you see here. Each mark is accompanied by the person's first name and mental state when they made it.
    In this project I tried to capture the most honest, raw expression through mark making that I could. I kept it simple, just a single mark with black ink on white paper. I tried to avoid having people think of it in artistic terms and never used the word art in the process.
    This would be a fun project to do with lots more people, but it would take a lot of time. Another idea I had was to use the strokes they made in a digital format as a brushstroke shape and make whole paintings with them.