Masters of the past and artists of the present use techniques to create images that please, relax and inspire us in a very personal and unique way.
Sharing our souls and our minds through the arts and imagery is alive in many media.
– Stephen James Harlan
Stephen Harlan has established his own unique style of digital artwork in a world moving quickly into the future.
Stephen James Harlan was born in rural Minnesota. His childhood memories are filled with thoughts of family, friends and activities that kept the soul alive during the Upper Midwest’s long winter months.
His family relocated to Ft. Myers, Florida when Stephen was still in grade school. His love for the water began at this early age when he spent many days (literally) sailing into the sunset on his catamaran.
Investigating the uniqueness of harbors and sunsets became a passion in those early years. Even now, Stephen’s nautical focus grows deeper every day, with the never-ending inspiration that comes from carefully observing the sea and the water in all of their contrasts.
In the early 1980s, Stephen and his wife Martha relocated to Burbank, California where his love for the ocean continued and grew. His artistic style expanded too, with images of the southwest and several other areas of inspiration becoming a part of his portfolio.
Stephen’s portfolio of abstract images also grew as increased interest and requests from California and West Coast collectors surfaced.
Stephen’s work was recognized by many, and his work adorned the covers of national magazines that ran the gamut from commercial, industrial, and musical amphitheater promotions to trendsetting publications such as AV/Video.
During these years, Stephen was commissioned to produce custom images including nautical, southwestern and abstract topics. He was recognized as a leader in digital imagery and placed “Best of Show” in important exhibits in Los Angeles and across Southern California.
In the late 1980s, Stephen and his family relocated to Maryland. The Harlan home on the shore of the Chesapeake Bay provided a perfect place to raise their daughters, Danielle and Samantha, while inspiring Harlan’s art.
In 2008, the Harlans moved to Wilmington, North Carolina. Today, the HarlanArt studio is located in Carolina Beach, where the Atlantic Ocean and Intercoastal Waterway serve as a constant source of stimulation for future work.
Like Norman Rockwell, Seuss personally created every rough sketch, preliminary drawing, final line drawing and finished work for each page of every project he illustrated. Despite the technical and budgetary limitations of color printing during the early and mid-twentieth century, Dr. Seuss the artist was meticulous about color selection. He created specially numbered color charts and elaborate color call-outs to precisely accomplish his vision for each book. Saturated reds and blues, for example, were carefully chosen for The Cat in the Hat to attract and maintain the visual attention of a six-year-old audience. By the time Seuss’s book career took off, sharp draftsman skills were evident in drawings. His ability to move a storyline ahead via illustrations filled with tension, movement and color became a hallmark component of his work, and the surreal images that unfolded over six decades became the catalyst for a humorous and inspired learning experience.
Artist Leo Rijn, the inaugural sculptor for the Dr. Seuss Tribute Collection I, was selected to launch this project due to his prized work with some of today’s top talent in the world of film, entertainment and the visual arts (including Tim Burton, Ang Lee and Steven Spielberg). Rijn has been identified as one of today’s brightest sculpting talents because of his ability to breathe life into the written word and successfully transform two-dimensional ideas into three-dimensional works of art. Universal Studios commissioned Leo to develop and oversee the creation of numerous maquette scale models for the Monumental Dr. Seuss Sculptures at Seuss Landing in Orlando, Florida. Leo was instrumental in the art direction for many of the sculpted characters and buildings now on display at this permanent Seuss attraction. His strikingly accurate Seuss works embody a masterful and intuitive Seussian sensibility, establishing him as a leading talent in interpretive sculpting.
Seuss embarked on an ingenious project in the early 1930s as he evolved from two-dimensional artworks to three-dimensional sculptures. What was most unusual for these mixed-media sculptures was the use of real animal parts including beaks, antlers and horns from deceased Forest Park Zoo animals where Seuss’s father was superintendent. Unorthodox Collection of Taxidermy was born in a cramped New York apartment and included a menagerie of inventive creatures with names like the “Two Horned Drouberhannis,” “Andulovian Grackler,” and “Semi-Normal Green-Lidded Fawn.” Shortly after Seuss created this unique collection of artworks, Look Magazine dubbed Seuss “The World’s Most Eminent Authority on Unheard-Of Animals.” To this day, Seuss’s Unorthodox Collection of Taxidermy remains as some of the finest examples of his inventive and multi-dimensional creativity.
Illustrator by day, surrealist by night, Seuss created a body of irrepressible work that redefines this American icon as an iconographic American artist. Yet, the Secret Art often shows a side of the artist that most readers, familiar with him through his classic children’s books, have never seen. This collection, created over a period of more than 60 years, encompasses the entirety of Seuss’s multi-dimensional talent. The artistic golden thread highlighted throughout this collection is apparent in each wildly imaginative and surreal Secret Art image. The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss is an inimitable collection of artworks created at night for his own personal enjoyment. These works were rarely, if ever, exhibited during his lifetime and provide a deeper glimpse into the art and life of this celebrated American Icon.
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