The recent addition at our art gallery, done by Fred Stonehouse, has a striking quality that catches the eye, if not in a partially puzzled glare. Part of his recent art show “The Silent Singers”, Stonehouse’s display has a half humorous, half unsettling tone that really pops out from prior exhibitions.

Stylistically, much of his art feels like some odd cartoon tried to rip itself away from it’s own cartoon-ish style and then attempted to cross the uncanny valley,  getting as pseudo realistic as it can. The aura this creates sets the tone, but is not entirely what sets his work apart from others.

Full of limbs, extra eyes, lights, tasteful drips of blood, unreal creatures and plenty of text that may seem humorous or may seem vague, Stonehouse’s work is one that seems as though it would be a good fit for a the strange world of something like… skateboarding, slacker and psychedelic cultures.

When I spoke to Stonehouse, he had just gotten back from New York as part of a road trip to pick up some artwork, soon to leave again for New York for more of casual trips to look at some art with some friends.

I mentioned an event of his that I had seen at the Spartan theater titled “You’re Weird”, and asked him about his influences. While at this talk, he spoke of some of his influences, and he showed the auditorium all of these strange, old depictions of mythical creatures and other odd pieces of artwork from the renaissance and medieval time. Bringing that up, he kindly mentioned that really he was influenced by a much larger spectrum of things,  really a countless amount of examples.

For the student’s sake, however, he cited these odd, old illustrations to show that the strangeness of his artwork was, in fact, not so strange when you come to look at all of the things he’s seen in his lifetime; much more than that, the weird things everyone has thought and seen in their lifetimes, certainly not excluding the world of dreams.

Talking more about the actual show, “The Silent Singers”, Stonehouse mentioned that though a lot of the references from the talk “You’re Weird”  were in some ways similar, the show itself was much different than the talk.  The talk was more about not feeling ashamed or guilty of using the strange in their work, especially when talking to these art students.

Wanting to know more about his beginnings in the “professional” art world,  I asked him when he started doing his work professionally, what he would consider the start of his career.

Stonehouse said he started working almost right out of art school, getting his first professional art show in Chicago in 1983, a year after completing art school. Of course, like many artists, he was working a day job up until around 1989. Since then, he has been a working artist, until 2006 when he began teaching at the University of Wisconsin. He is grateful to have been working in the field as long as he’s been able to, even calling it a miracle. He has certainly made his mark.

Now, when talking about the show itself, “The Silent Singers”, Stonehouse mentioned the very spontaneous yet natural process when it came to making the pieces themselves.  He stated that he, in a way, limited himself unintentionally when working on the art, talking about the color for example; just red, white and black being used for a good portion of the art.

Not much of the art had too much thought or planning attached to them. Stonehouse found that he began working on them and just couldn’t stop.  He didn’t even plan to make a whole show about it, he just went through an inspired time in his studio where ideas flew but the work just fit together aesthetically.

Giving any quick google search on Stonehouse’s art will send you to pages of beautiful, strange, bone chilling and humorous pieces one can’t help to get mesmerized in. A true Priest of the Surreal, Stonehouse is a powerhouse of mad man culture, pumping out pieces of art the Goof balls, weird kids and those with a love of strangness and a dark sense of humor would applaud from around the world. A humble and kind interviewee and man of charm, Stonehouse seems like a shining role model for those who wish to create and love what they do.