<p>Steven Assael was born in New York, New York in 1957.&nbsp; He attended Pratt Institute and presently teaches at The School of Visual Arts in New York.&nbsp; Assael balances naturalism with a romanticism that permeates the figures and surroundings of his paintings and drawings.&nbsp; The focus of his work is the human figure, either individually or in a group, rendered in glowing relief by gentle beams of warm and cool light.&nbsp; Steven Assael’s classical talents are as rare as they are essential to the diverse art world of the 21st Century.</p> <p>For online teaching/mentorship please contact Steven at <a href="//[email protected]">[email protected]</a></p> <p><strong>Topics Discussed In This Episode:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Seeking out advantages within painting and connecting with people during quarantine</li> <li>Separation bringing us together</li> <li>The intimate process of working with models and how they directly or indirectly affect the painting</li> <li>Allowing for change within his overall creative vision</li> <li>Teaching painting over Zoom</li> <li>What makes a good teacher</li> <li>The search for finding the right questions to ask</li> <li>Experience motivating change and providing a renewal of what you want</li> <li>Creating situations of exploration for oneself</li> <li>Extracting the right vocabulary while creating</li> <li>The element of control and power that children express when drawing different objects</li> <li>Understanding the dynamic of copying a subject while painting, and how that evolves into a deeper exploration of shapes, tone, atmospheres, and the figure itself.</li> <li>Giving breadth to form</li> <li>A great work of art being infectious</li> <li>The nature of romanticism</li> <li>Working from life being an “inquiry into your own humanness”</li> <li>The idea of questioning and rebelling within a visual outlook</li> <li>Human nature</li> <li>The environment of New York throughout the last forty years, and how it has changed</li> <li>The importance of theatre and the work of actors</li> <li>Symmetry and asymmetry, and its importance within artform and observation</li> <li>“Everything is everything” aproach to life</li> <li>Learning what to see flowing into learning how to paint</li> <li>Nature being sporadic, and how we must become “like water” in order to succeed in our strategies in life</li> <li>A commercialized outlook within the art world</li> <li>Art becoming entertainment</li> <li>Faith and doubt</li> <li>Questioning of spirituality and existenc</li> </ul> <p><br></p> <p><a href="http://steven-assael-mr8x.squarespace.com/work">Website</a></p> <p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/stevenassael/"><strong>Instagram</strong></a></p> <p><a href="https://www.forumgallery.com/artists/steven-assael2"><strong>Forum Gallery</strong></a></p> <p><a href="https://artistdecoded.com/"><strong>Artist Decoded</strong></a></p> <p><strong>Find us on all your favorite platforms including:</strong></p> <p><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lo-fi-podcast/id1483855995"><strong>Apple</strong></a></p> <p><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/7oz5s3NNnynxTSpgZicBwk?si=Myr05TR6SFubByW6utmGwQ"><strong>Spotify</strong></a></p> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl77vkRu1S9HpdRxLA6gZvQ"><strong>YouTube</strong></a></p> <p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/lofipod"><strong>Facebook</strong></a></p> <p>IG: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lofipod/"><strong>@lofipod</strong></a></p> <p><a href="https://www.lofipodcast.com/"><strong>Website</strong></a></p> <p><a href="https://www.nohwaveacademy.com/"><strong>Noh/Wave Academy</strong></a></p> <p><a href="https://www.johnwentz.com/"><strong>John Wentz</strong></a></p>