ASI 78 Artist Spotlight: Exploring the Artistic Journey and Mastery of Drew Steinbrecher

Jeff: 0:07

Welcome back to Art Supply Insiders. My name is Jeff Morrow and in today's artist spotlight we're talking about Drew Steinbrecher, and Drew is a collage, printmaking and fiber artist. So, drew, did I screw your name up too badly?

Drew: 0:25

Nope, you were perfect.

Jeff: 0:29

Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with our audience today. Can you give us a little bit of history? Are you classically trained? How did you get into this? Just tell us a little bit about yourself, if you would.

Drew: 0:45

Yeah, so I was always like a craftsy kid when I was little. I wasn't the kid who was, you know, that was good at drawing, but I was always making things. And I got to high school and took art classes and discovered I was, I had a talent for design. So I went to college and got a degree in graphic design. Oh, wow, yeah, so I have a degree in graphic design. So I'm not classically trained, but I guess I'm trained in design.

Jeff: 1:21

That's as classically trained as I consider classically trained, okay.

Drew: 1:28

It was interesting because I went to College of Design, architecture, art and Planning at the University of Cincinnati and at the time, which was in the mid 90s, a lot of my professors were older at that time and they were. A lot of them were Yale and some of them were actually from Switzerland and they were trained by a lot of the Bauhaus people, because when the Nazis closed Bauhaus they all left Germany and they either went to Switzerland or to the US and a lot of them ended up at Yale. So I was kind of taught a little. In a way you could say I was like one step removed from the Bauhaus.

Jeff: 2:14

Let me jump in Bauhaus. That's not a term I'm familiar with. Tell me a little bit about that.

Drew: 2:22

So in the 20s and 30s in Germany there was a design school called the Bauhaus and it was really influential design education and there were a lot of artists that taught there, like Kandinsky and Albers, who did a lot with color theory, walter Gropius he was like a famous architect and the Nazis shut the school down. So a lot of those people left Germany and, like I just said, they ended up in Switzerland or in the US. They taught a lot. They ended up teaching at universities, so they taught some of my college professors.

Jeff: 3:11

How cool is that? I mean, you know what a wonderful way to learn, right, yeah?

Drew: 3:18

A lot of well at the time when I was in design school. A lot of the exercises we did were exercises that they had done at the Bauhaus, especially with color.

Jeff: 3:31

So I'm kind of looking at your website right now. Incidentally, for those of you listening out there, very cool website, very, very cool. Can you give us your web address?

Drew: 3:45

Yeah, it's actually up to. It leads to the same place. It's either Andrew Steinbrencher or drustinbrechercom.

Jeff: 3:52

Okay, so that's A-N-D-R-E-W-S-T-E-I-N-B-R-E-C-H-E-R. Correct. Okay, great, see I, even when I'm just filling it out, I probably goofed it out.

Drew: 4:11

It's a long German name.

Jeff: 4:14

The thing that really hit me when I'm looking at your website is how vibrant and happy your art is. When I first opened it up, I just smiled and it made me feel good.

Drew: 4:33

Well, that's good, because I think when I make my art, I'm happy.

Jeff: 4:37

Well, it really comes across. So tell us a little bit about the different genres that you do with collage, printmaking and fiber.

Drew: 4:48

Yeah, so I started making art. I was doing the graphic design thing. I had a nine to five job, etc. And I would come home from work and wanted to keep. You know, it's one thing to design for a client and another thing to make art for yourself. You know what I mean. So I would come home and have a desire to be creative without someone telling me what to do, in other words. So I started. This was probably sometime around 2000. And there was this big like craft resurgence around then.

Drew: 5:30

Yeah, so I started messing around with fabric. I had a sewing machine. I always had light sewing clothes, so I had a sewing machine. I wasn't really using it much and I had some fabric and I just started messing around and I eventually discovered modern quilts and they really appealed to me because they're more abstract. They have like hard edges because of the way the fabric seams come together, so they're more graphic and I just started making them and sharing them online and got a lot of interest online. This was the early days. I don't know if you remember a website called Flickr. Oh, sure, yeah. So there were a lot of people I met on Flickr that have become well-known and I've been friends with a lot of those people since then and I kept going with the modern quilts and eventually I wanted something that was faster, because, as you can imagine, it takes a while to make a quilt.

Drew: 6:43

I would think, yeah. So I had always liked collaging. So I was like, well, why don't I start collaging? That's a faster way to make art. And while I'm in between, while I'm making these quilts, I can just do a quick collage. I can have a sketchbook and do a collage.

Drew: 7:03

And I was struggling with kind of finding my voice, both with the quilts and with the collages and sometime around them, then I discovered jelly plates and they were starting to get traction online and people were sharing them and becoming more into them, and jelly plates can produce this really grungy look to the prints which appeal to my aesthetic because I'm inspired by urban environments. So I got a jelly plate and started making it and then started using those printed papers in my collage work and suddenly everything just fell right into place. And when I started sharing that online, that's when people really started to notice my work and the quilt work changed too, which I thought was interesting. So now what I do is the quilts that I make are almost all digitally printed. So there, so it's. I take my photography, I take my monoprints, I scan them into the computer and then I manipulate them, and then I print that out, and that's the. Then I of course quilt it like in a traditional way.

Jeff: 8:27

Well, you know, I'm looking at your on your website right now and I'm looking under the quilts and it is just so vibrant. There are a lot of, when you say, modern edge to it, you talking about it with the brighter colors and the harder edges is that kind of what? You were talking about here.

Drew: 8:52

Yes, yeah, so whenever you have a hard edge, it makes something more graphic, right, yeah, so that, you know, appeals to my like graphic design heart, you know so I can understand cause I'm looking at it now and I'm looking at all of your different quilts, and every single one of them speak to me.

Jeff: 9:16

For those of you that are listening out there, if you have an opportunity to listen to this podcast and be looking at Drew's website at the same time, you're really gonna get a greater feel for his depth of the art that he does, and it's inspiring. I don't know how you do it, but it's inspiring.

Drew: 9:43

Thank you, you can, I can. I'm looking at this at the website too. Most of these it's in reverse order, so it's starting with the newest one and working backwards. So if you scroll down, if you scroll down the page, you can kind of see how it started evolving and you can see the point, you can see the point in there where it starts changing. And then I could start introducing the digitally printed fabrics and then from there it just goes to 100% digital.

Jeff: 10:13

I am so glad you mentioned it that way, because you're right, you go from the bottom up. Your progression is just stunning and sophisticated.

Drew: 10:27

Yeah, thank you. You know, for a while. On the bottom of the page all those quilts are what are called hand pieced. So I'm not literally taking a needle and a thread, I'm using a sewing machine. But all those little pieces you see are pieces of fabric that are cut and sewn together.

Drew: 10:51

So I had thought like, well, if I'm gonna be a real quilter, then I have to do that. I have to cut out all these little pieces and sew them together. And I suddenly realized you know what I can do, what I want. If I wanna print out, if I wanna do it all on the computer and print it out digitally, then that's what I can do and I'm allowed to do that. I can make that decision. So that's when I gave myself permission to do that. That's when I started producing these 100% printed quilts. Now, even the ones at the top, those still have some sewn components to them. They're still I guess you could call them panels of fabric that are sewn together. So in a way they are still pieced quilts, but they're just not. They don't have the amount of pieces as the ones at the bottom.

Jeff: 11:46

And you know, isn't that the case? When you finally decide you don't have to do what convention says you have to do, correct, but you just follow your heart and your brain and do what makes you happy. And that's when, all of a sudden, your art just takes off right.

Drew: 12:06

Yeah, absolutely. I think it's a process to get there. It's a process to realize I don't need to do the thing that's holding me back. I can do what I want to do. I think it's definitely you need to go through the process.

Jeff: 12:28

You really do, because when you're a beginner, you kind of have to copy and listen and follow some rules, just so that you don't get so frustrated and everything turns into mud. Right, Correct? Yeah, you have a wonderful quote on your home page that says no single act will uncover more creative genius than forcing yourself to create consistently. That's really the key, isn't it? It's just even in your down periods, just keep doing it.

Drew: 13:04

Yeah, I mean, you got to show up. Right, you got to show up and do the thing to get better at it. You always hear Picasso had thousands of pieces of work, which meant he was producing multiple pieces of art a day. Because there's so many pieces of art and he was only alive so many days, right, yeah, he had to have been producing multiple a day. I think if you want to be prolific, then you got to make art. If you want to be good, you got to practice.

Jeff: 13:41

And that's great advice for any profession in the world If you want to be good, you better practice your craft. Otherwise, just be okay to be average.

Drew: 13:55

Correct. I mean, how many times do professional athletes not want to go training or whatever? But they have to right.

Jeff: 14:02

Yeah, last weekend I was watching a golf tournament Guy that led the tournament. He finished the 18th hole and, instead of going in and having some lunch, he went back to the driving range and he spent another one or two or three hours just perfecting different parts of his swing. And art is no different, is it? Yeah, right, so I'm looking also now on your website where it goes to portfolio, and you have a portfolio that says collage, sketchbook, printmaking, fiber art, quilts. Let's go through that very, very briefly. Talk a little bit about what makes you so happy about collage. Why do you enjoy that so much?

Drew: 14:52

I can have a hard time making decisions. So I like that I can move the pieces around and try this, try that, and then, once I'm happy with it, I can glue it down. You know the traditional painting. I've stayed away from it because you kind of like, once you put something down, it's down there. I know you can cover it up right. I know I understand that, but that whole idea kind of scares me. I want to be able to change my mind.

Jeff: 15:31

And that's the right of an artist, isn't? It Is to be able to change your mind to the vision that you have, and sometimes that vision doesn't happen quickly, does?

Drew: 15:42

it no, and with the collage, you can even use adhesive that's repositionable or not as strong and change your mind later. I also like collage because it can be quick.

Jeff: 16:03

Yeah, you can, and you can almost do it anywhere you could go out and where other people are doing plein air painting, you just do plein air collage, right.

Drew: 16:13

And I like the. I like that you can use any kind of paper. You can make your own paper, you can. You know something, you find. You know anything and everything.

Jeff: 16:28

I even found in a past life where artists were in their collages. They were using encaustic wax in really cool ways. So there, with collage, you could use that. There's really nothing you can't use, right.

Drew: 16:48

Right, yeah, I mean, you could use cardboard boxes if you wanted, so the next one over.

Jeff: 16:53

I actually watched one of our videos on what you do with sketchbooks Very interesting. Talk to us about how you use sketchbooks and how what you do isn't quite as traditional as what people might think.

Drew: 17:10

Yeah, so with my sketchbooks, I tried for the longest time to use a traditional sketchbook with the you know like what you would think of when you think of a sketchbook, and for whatever reason, I wasn't interested in it and I wasn't sticking with it. And one time I found somewhere online someone was using an old, vintage book and they were essentially gluing the pages together to make them a little thicker and then using that as a sketchbook. So I thought, well, maybe I can try that. So I came across an old book and tried it and suddenly it was like, oh, for whatever reason, I guess, because there's something on the page already, I'm more interested in working in this book and I use a lot of matte medium as glue so it can get really wet, right and so some of those pages were starting to buckle. And so then I thought, well, is there a kind of book that has thicker pages?

Drew: 18:16

And if you know, like when you have a toddler, you give them those board books and they have those like really thick pages, they're like cardboard pages. And I was like, well, I can totally use that. I'll just use that because the pages are thicker and they'll hold the glue. So I just started using those, and again because there's something already on the page. I was filling them up so fast. I have so many right now like on my I don't even know what to do with.

Drew: 18:50

And then I was sharing them online and people were asking how I do it. So then I put together a little free course and I just explained all the tips and tricks, because I've discovered a lot of do's and don'ts through the years of how to use those books. They can be a little finicky, so it just helps people use them and it's kind of become a thing online. I wish I would have created a hashtag or something so I could see what people are doing with them, because a lot of people are doing really cool things, mostly collage. No-transcript.

Jeff: 19:29

Well, you know, with all those books and stuff I've noticed you don't have a store on your website. Maybe you can just get a store there and sell them, because these are really striking books.

Drew: 19:43

Thank you. Yeah, I have had people ask about buying them. The website's new I just finished it this summer, so the store is, you know, coming soon.

Jeff: 19:57

Coming soon to a theater near you, right, yeah, yes.

Drew: 20:03

So let's go ahead, please. Yeah, and since then, if you look at the website, I do have some pages from a traditional sketchbook. I've noticed people online starting to do these what they're calling grid journals, where they just create these squares on the pages and create collages or small little abstract paintings within those squares, and so if you see the website you'll notice I've started doing that, and that has creating those squares on the page and then collate working within those squares has helped me too.

Jeff: 20:44

Oh, you're right. I can, now that you've mentioned that, see that that's what you're doing. That's very cool. So tell us a little bit about your printmaking journey and using gel plates. We've actually interviewed a couple of people in the past on gel plates and how to do it. Talk about your journey there.

Drew: 21:05

Yeah, so, like I said, I saw people using a jelly plate I think it was like 2019. And I really liked that. They had this grunginess to the prints, and so I bought one and started using it and I liked it. I really started using it when everything shut down in March 2020. And I suddenly had all this time at home, so I just went into my studio and started messing around and started creating these prints and using the gel plate and experimenting with different kinds of tools and paints, and I don't do as much just straight up prints anymore, but I mostly just use a gel plate to create collage papers. But when I put together this website over the summer, I was like I need to start doing this again. I kind of just miss making prints right For the sake of making prints. Well, it is certainly beautiful.

Jeff: 22:20

Now you have videos that people can go see and watch, as you do. A lot of this art right.

Drew: 22:31

Yeah, yeah. So a lot of my just this video has become more popular online, especially like on Instagram and et cetera. I've just created a lot of videos sharing a lot of my knowledge, explaining what I do. People have a lot of questions about what I do, and so I'm happy to share and explain.

Jeff: 22:54

And they can get to those videos through your website.

Drew: 22:58

Yeah, so they're mostly on my Instagram and there's a little bit on my YouTube and you can find those on my website.

Jeff: 23:08

The links to those and is there a difference between your fiber art and your quilts or?

Drew: 23:19

is it the same? Well, I mean, they're the same in that obviously they're both. You know they're sewn pieces, my fiber art I usually save that term for my smaller pieces, so and they're almost always I wrap them around a frame. Okay, so it's. I don't know if you could call them. They're not necessarily paintings, but they're. It feels more like a traditional piece of art in that it's framed and you would hang it just like a traditional piece of painting or something.

Jeff: 24:03

And the quilts are more. It's a really pretty wall art. I didn't mean to interrupt you, sorry.

Drew: 24:09

Yeah, yeah so, and the quilts are more kind of like wall hangings and that they they're not wrapped on their frame, they have their own way to. They have a sleeve at the top. Okay, you know, like you have a hanging slat at the top, that where you hang it. So it would be maybe more like a like a tapestry maybe.

Jeff: 24:30

Got it. The other thing that I see here is tell us a little bit about these online classes that you offer.

Drew: 24:39

Yeah, so when I started sharing my gel plate prints and all my collage work, a lot of people were asking how I was getting some of those effects on a gel plate and I had a lot of questions about it. And around the same time, I saw people making and sharing online art classes and I thought, okay, well, this, I have these people asking these questions, so maybe I could put together a class, an online class. I taught myself how to do video, I taught myself how to do voiceovers, I researched teaching platforms and all that stuff and I put together my first class, which is it's called print your creativity exploring gel plates, and it's really great for beginner and intermediate gel plate users and it basically explains everything I do on a gel plate. So it starts at the beginning, all the way basics, all the way to things like doing magazine transfers, which a lot of people love to do, but struggle with using stencils and masks, how to make those and use those on a plate. One thing I do a lot is use acrylic paint markers on the plate, which a lot of people really like. So I explained that and you know, among other things. So I put that together, I think. I think I opened it in September 2021. And it did really well. So since then I've expanded. I started. I have that board book class that I mentioned that. That was that one's actually free. So if your listeners want to go do that, they can do that and learn how to use a board book as a sketchbook.

Drew: 26:35

Last winter I did a collage summit. I called it the collage makers summit and I asked nine artists collage artists to share videos and over the period of two weeks I released a video a day and everyone was able to learn from different collage artists and how they approach their work and that, yeah, that was really successful. It's a lot of fun. We have a Facebook group with that and it's still active. Even even though the summit happened last winter, that Facebook group is still active. I am going to do that again next winter. So if you guys want to get on my my mail list, you can get more info about that and then, coming up in this September, I'm doing this same thing as I did with the collage summit, but with gel plates, so I'm calling it the gel printer summit and that opens up for earlier registration on September 18th and then the summit actually opens October 2nd.

Jeff: 27:43

And right now sorry to interrupt, but right now for those of you that are listening. In the future, we're talking of 2023, right?

Drew: 27:50

Yes, yep, and I have a lot of really great. There's 14 artists total for that one. I have a lot of really great artists like Axford, birgit Koopsen, mark Yates, among others, so I was able to get some of the gel plate superstars lined up for that class, so I'm excited. It's going to be a lot of fun.

Jeff: 28:19

You have a lot going on and unfortunately we're coming towards the end and this time has just flown by. I can't believe when I looked down and said, oh my Lord, we're almost at the end here. So again for people that want to see your website find out more about these online classes, look at what your portfolio looks like. Your website again is.

Drew: 28:48

It's andrewsteinbrechercom or drusesteinbrechercom.

Jeff: 28:54

Wow. You owe it to yourself to go to this website because, as I was looking at some of the things he has on here, he makes it very, very easy to follow along and understand. So it doesn't matter if you are a beginner or if you are a grizzled veteran in these areas. Drew really has a site that will work for all of you. Drew, I can't tell you how much we've enjoyed this quick time together. Hopefully in the future, as you have other things going on, we could do it again.

Drew: 29:36

Yeah, absolutely, it was a lot of fun. Thanks for inviting me.

Jeff: 29:40

My pleasure. Is there anything I forgot to ask you that you would like to let the audience know?

Drew: 29:49

Follow me on Instagram.

Jeff: 29:54

Absolutely Follow Drew. So again, drew, thanks so much. Yeah, thank you, thank you.