An artist in his own right: Stauder and the brush

Art Department Head Jeff Stauder may pour lots of hours into his job at ARHS, but he also has a thriving art career all of his own.

Before becoming a teacher, Stauder went to college at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he majored in philosophy before switching to fine art, followed by graduate school at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in Boston. 

Stauder is drawn to all types of art but has noticed that when he was younger, he focused mostly on modern art, and now he is drawn to older paintings. “There are great painters from all eras,” he said. 

As an artist himself, he prefers to use oil paint on canvas, though his art studio has a wide range of supplies. When working on an oil painting, he takes his time. “Some paintings take months,” he said.  

Stauder’s early works were wall-based mixed media construction using found objects and beeswax and all sorts of objects but recently he’s used mostly oil paint. Stylewise he prefers to challenge himself by emulating different eras and painters.

On his website, jeffstauder.com, he noted that as a child he was “captivated by the stories of wild west gunslingers and outlaws,” an interest that led him to produce a series called Mythic West, “a mash-up of that troubled tradition with another–the classical myths that have dominated Western visual culture for hundreds of years.” The series includes paintings of buffaloes, cowboys, and more.

Despite how prolific of an artist Stauder is, he is pretty modest about his work. “I have only created a few great pieces,” he said. One of his favorite pieces is called an “Essay on Utopia,” a piece of wood with philosophical writing on it. Stauder said that it is “pretty much impossible to read it.”

To balance his teaching and his creating, Stauder does most of his painting and art in the summer, and he prefers to work in his studio late at night.

Stauder creates art just for himself and is happy to show it to family and friends. “I don’t really care if people like it,” he said. However, people do seem to like it, attending his art shows and buying his work, which is shown in galleries, as well. 

When he changed his major in junior year of college, he decided to commit himself to being a painter and pursuing art as his professional career. 

Stauder does not try to imbue his painting with too much (of his?) personality. “I’m not too interested in myself, I’m more interested in the history of art,” he said.

When it comes to struggle, Stauder said he has had some. “The only way to get out of it is to paint through it and keep working,” Stauder said. “Getting stuck can be helpful and it forces you to take risks and try out of the box things,”