Stephen White didn’t know he was going to be an artist when he “grew up.” In fact, as a kid, he was admittedly uncreative. But in 1964, when stationed as an Air Force lieutenant in Tennessee, White needed a lamp.
“I decided I would build it, instead of buy it,” says White, now 70. He found discarded strips of wood from the military base’s carpentry shop, a quart of aircraft dope (a toxic glue), and tissue paper. After assembling those components into a cylinder, reminiscent of a Japanese lantern, White decided he didn’t like the lamp. “The proportions were all wrong,” he recalls. He cut it into two pieces and gave half to a friend.
Those pragmatic beginnings led to his 45-year career as a light sculptor.
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Two years later, when stationed above the Arctic Circle in Alaska, White told the owner of an Anchorage art gallery about the lamps he’d made. She asked if he wanted a one-man show. He accepted, then spent months crafting 18 pieces for the exhibition, and sold two.
Since then, White has created more than 2,000 sculptures in locales from Hawaii to Italy, and has exhibited in galleries across the globe. White is also a staple at local venues like the Maude Kerns Art Center’s biennial show “Oregon Made for Interiors.” Four of his pieces were featured this year. “I can’t imagine an ‘Oregon Made for Interiors’ without his work,” says Marsha Shankman, Maude Kerns’ publicity coordinator. “His pieces are elegant sculptural statements.”
Though the basic concept—paper-laminated wood light sculpture—has remained consistent, the materials have not. The woods have changed, and the glues to affix the paper have evolved (Elmer’s is White’s glue of choice now). He mostly uses white tissue paper but occasionally experiments with colored rice paper or pages from an antique Japanese accounting book.
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The other constant is light. White wires each sculpture with enough bulbs to make it appear as if it’s naturally lighted from within. “The laminated paper and wood sculptures I create are beautiful in themselves, yet it is the light that gives them their life,” White says. “I am nurtured by creating them, and others are nurtured when they incorporate them into their homes.”
White describes his early sculptures as “primitive.” Now they are anything but—repetitious yet unpredictable, organic yet architectural. (White has a degree in architecture.) The pieces are so complex that it’s hard to imagine they were created without blueprints. White cites nature as his inspiration; he begins each piece without a plan in mind. “The pieces, in a sense, design themselves,” White says. “It’s in the bending of the wood that I see where it wants to go, what it’s going to be.”
The walls of White’s studio—a converted carport at his South Eugene home—are swathed in pale yellow paint. His pieces, in various states of completion, hang from the ceiling or lie on the floor. Some sculptures are small; others barely fit within the confines of his studio walls.
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White hand-rips tissue paper into long strips and small rhomboid shapes. He places each strip onto a wooden frame, dips his paintbrush into a tub of Elmer’s, and paints the glue onto the paper. One sculpture requires 60 or more hours to complete and more than a dozen layers of paper. The final look is seamless, like a taut animal hide illuminated from within.
White doesn’t envision retiring any time soon. “Over the years, I’ve thought I was going to shift and do something else,” he says. “But every time I realized I needed to make money, I’d come back to this. Of course, it’s not all about money. The process of discovery is what any artist is about. As long as the discovery process continues, I will too. For me it’s all about beauty, and, of course, light.”
Eugene Celebration
Check out Stephen White’s light sculptures as part of The Splinters’ (a group of local woodworkers) booth at the Eugene Celebration.
September 4-6, 2009
$12 three-day wristband; $5 Sunday only (purchase through local ticket outlets or TicketsWest online)
541/681-4108
eugenecelebration.com
DIVA Open Studio Art Tour 2009
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Organized by the Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts (DIVA), this tour offers the public a rare look into the studios of local artists. Stephen White’s studio is a stop on this self-guided two-weekend event.
October 17-18 and 24-25, 2009
$15 (purchase online, in person, or over the phone through DIVA)
541/344-3482
110 W Broadway
divacenter.org
Documentary about Stephen White
Called “Luminessence: A Journey in Light. The Light Sculptures of Stephen White,” Written and directed by Bruce Kubert, the documentary traces White’s life and work and features numerous interviews with friends and art critics. Bonus footage includes a comprehensive slide show of White’s light sculptures. Purchase directly from Stephen White, $20
541/344-2124
corriecroft.com/luminessence
