Roderick E. Stevens has been intrigued with art in all forms from the time of early boyhood. His first set of oils was handed to him at the age of 7 and his love for painting was promptly born. At the beginning, his art was more abstract expressionism. In high school, he started exploring realism and he found that he loved the way acrylic paint gave him dramatic yet quick results achieving intense details in his photo-realistic paintings. Film making grabbed his attention early in his career, and cinematography became his focus - an occasional hobby for many years. His work directing the photography of numerous music videos, indie films, and shots continued to grow, but his spiritual and emotional sense remained quite out of balance.
Then in 2004, some significant personal turmoil helped him to realize he needed to re-evaluate. Stevens made a discovery of the fact that he was in desperate need of a spiritual connection and an emotional transformation. One of his very first steps in the recovery process was to get himself back into something that he really enjoyed. That thing has to be something very personal, and expressive of him. To be honest, it didn’t seem like painting was the thing he was looking for, but Stevens forced himself to pick up the brush – he has never looked back. By the time he was done with the first piece, he remembered how much pleasure he felt from painting, and his passion was officially re-ignited. From then, he began painting at every opportunity.
