SEATTLE — Joseph Steininger sees the world in its many layers. He paints it that way, too.
"A lot of it was very trial-and-error," Steininger said.
The Seattle artist recreates vibrant urban landscapes using spray paint on wood.
"Every piece is based off of a photo I've taken somewhere," Steininger said.
The tools can be challenging.
"Spray paint was never intended to be an artistic medium. It had a very industrial purpose," Steininger said.
The paint brings eye-popping flare but can't be toned down or tinted.
"Because you can't mix spray paint, so you're stuck with very strict palettes," he said.
Every shadow, every shade and every nuance of color must be added separately, layer by layer, using hand-cut stencils.
"A lot of planning," Steininger said.
Steininger admired the work of other stencil artists who use two or three colors but decided to take it up a notch.
"I knew how I would improve it," he said, "What if I did 20 layers?"
This painter is really more of a stencil maker.
"95%, I would say, of my time is just cutting small holes in paper," Steininger said.
He spends countless hours in the studio carefully creating the individual layers needed for every hue.
"Typically, 18 to 24 stencils," he said. "I'll know how they are going to be layered, I'll know where all my overlaps are. I'll know what order they're going to be sprayed in, and I'll know what colors they're going to be. It's so process-oriented that it gets to a point where, as long as I follow these steps, my outcome should be what I'm expecting."
The finished product can look almost like a photo, which leaves some viewers baffled.
"They'll see the painting and they'll be like, 'Oh, this is really cool,'" Steininger said. "Then they'll read the label and they'll be like, 'Spray paint? What do you mean this is made with spray paint?'"
His work has been shown everywhere from the Seattle Art Museum to New York and the Netherlands.
"All over," he said.
So people far and wide can see the layers of the world, too.
"And find that personal connection," Steininger said.
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