By Joaquin Gallegos
Photo by Steve Graziani
As a Mecca of the art world, Southern California finds itself home to many artists of different styles. Some artists have so much creativity, their talents spillover to multiple formats.
One such artist is Steve Graziani who is an artist as well as a sci-fi writer. Having worked in the entertainment industry as an art director, Steve has many projects behind him. However, it is his flair for etchings that have made him stand out in his own way.
The discovery of his etching talent took root when he found he needed to have images for his sci-fi books. Those titles include “Sorcerer’s Door: Prelude to a Prophecy”, and “Sorcerer’s Door: Amidst a Prophet”, as well as “Hope of Redemption.” All of which can be found on Amazon. He also has many short stories under his belt.
Etching is a medium that is halfway drawing art and halfway sculpture. It is a heritage art which dates back hundreds of years. The process of doing an etching involves making a template out of a zinc plate by coating it with another substance and baking it. An image is then carved onto it. The plate is put through a chemical bath of nitric acid so that the image is burned into the plate. This process can take multiple tries. Eventually, the plate is put into an etching press along with ink to transfer the image onto paper.
The result is an image that is sharp in contrast. Fingers can glide across the surface and feel the image. Since this type of art has been around for a long time, very few artists use it compared to digital media. Many people may also find the process time consuming as numerous steps are involved. Knowing this, an art lover can appreciate etchings knowing that the image was created almost like a sculpture with the artist themselves creating each piece.
Steve has created over 200 of these etchings since 2018. Each one is limited in their size to less than 13 inches. He also limits the production and use of each plate to around one hundred copies. Each one is still pressed individually by him.
The subjects of his etchings he classifies as commentary art because to him it comes from the surroundings of our society. However, they have some dark edges to them. For instance, during the Covid Pandemic, he created a piece called “Nature Bites Back,” which is a picture of a partial gas mask with its eye reflecting other individuals wearing gas masks.
"Nature Bites Back” by Steve Graziani
Photo by Joaquin Gallegos
There is also the etching called “Chastity Belt” which depicts a floating brain encompassed in straps with a padlock. He says that this represents the restriction that people put on themselves when they close their minds off. Even though he names his pieces, Steve also likes to offer up his artwork to society for its own interpretations and “Chastity Belt” by Steve Graziani
Photo by Joaquin Gallegos
maybe they can also find their own stories to go with them.
As a show of commitment to his work, he refers to any piece he is currently working on at the time to be his favorite. This shows the unwavering quality to his work. Many members of society can reflect on this attribute. For those in school looking to go down the path of art or life in general Steve has some words of advice.
Study and figure out what you want to do. Figure out what you feel like doing and then see where it goes.
Get involved with something and see where your art will fit in.
What people study doesn’t necessarily mean what they are going to do.
You might have a lot of hopes that you are going to do it, but unless you go and do it (hope is all it will ever be). You can get tired of hearing about someone wanting to go do something but not doing it.
You can have passion, but you have to do the best thing first.
The realistic way of approaching something is to start down the path of which way you’d like to go, be open to heading down different directions but keep trying to go where you want to go.
Though he does not consider his art to be in the horror genre, readers will find him at many of the horror type conventions as well as others. His next convention will be “WonderCon.” He has also been in attendance at ComicCon, MidSummer Scream, Monsterpalooza, as well as the Beverly Hills Art Festival. He is happy to talk with people about his work as well as the process of how he does his art. And of course, his artwork can be picked up there as well.
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