Stephen Webber

To view a painting by Stephen A Webber, one is immediately struck by the fact that the artist is clearly an inheritor of the great throne that past royalty, such as Archibald J. Motley Jr., Jacob Lawrence, Aaron Douglas, & John Biggers (to name but a few), have all been fortunate enough to sit upon while holding artistic court. One of the wonderful things about Webber's works is his refusal to view the 'ways of black folk' as something 'dirty' or a thing that must be concealed from the rest of the world. By shifting his focus toward what makes African Americans similar as opposed to different from other races, Webber captures the inherent humility found in a people, as they simply live out their day to day existence.

Stephen A. Webber grew up in Ravenswood housing Projects, Long Island City, Queens, New York. He first became fascinated with art while watching his mother draw brilliantly colored cartoons of Mighty Mouse & Heckle and Jeckle on torn brown bags. He attended and graduated from the high school of Art & Design in New York city. After High School, the artist's life turned toward the temptations of inner city street life. It would be this direction which set off a long downward spiral of self destructive living and eventually the painter hitting a bottom.

In 1988, a chain of events led the artist back to a positive direction. From then on until 2001, this amazingly gifted mostly self taught artist exhibited paintings locally in New York. Now residing in Atlanta, Georgia - Webber has been featured in five art shows. Two of which being solo exhibitions. In 2004, he was awarded the Atlanta MECCA Award (Meeting Excellence In Contribution to the Community in the Arts.

"My life experiences from events, situations and sometimes maybe a song, are shared through the beauty of figures, color, and emotion. My goals are to promote awareness, faith and hope. I'm particularly focused on honesty in my expressions. I like my work to appeal to the viewers' spirit, and be more than a pretty picture. My paintings project raw feelings and thoughts, and I work to continue to get better at sharing what is the truth."  Stephen Webber