Steven Harrington’s “Our Mountain”
By perrin
When Steven Harrington was a child, his father took him and his brother to a small mountain in La Verne, CA, every Saturday morning. Equipped with donuts and hot chocolate, the trio sat atop the mountain to watch the morning spread over their town. Harrington now admits what seemed like a mountain then is really just a small hill. It’s this spot, however, that he commemorates in his book. “Our Mountain” is page after page of bright patterns and collage that recalls illustrations and even fabric designs from the ’60s and ’70s. Shape becomes landscape, becomes figure or face, all interwoven, all connected.
Your work, upon first glance, is all about color and pattern. Many of the images within the patterns, and indeed the pattern designs themselves, hearken back to traditional Native American symbols and pattern-making. Do you have a personal connection to Native American imagery or art?
Native American symbols have played a major role in my work lately. I feel these symbols and icons very much represent a strong sense of social community and connectivity, something which I feel we lack greatly today, especially in America. I guess incorporating these symbols into my work is just my way of trying to reflect a sense of community and connection amongst my viewers. A little of it has to do with past times, and maybe it also has something to do with growing up with a hippy mom and a pair of hippy aunts.
A lot of artists have recurring motifs or images. I’m talking specifically about the use of teepees in your work. Why teepees?
Many of the elements I use have a lot to do with multiplicity. A puzzle piece represents connectivity and community because it’s identity is found when connected to another piece. A wink is a gesture with many meanings depending on the receiver, the sender, and the context in which it is given. Teepees represent shelter and community but when combined with a face or character they take on a certain personality. Community is an on-going theme in my work, I guess thats why the teepees.
It’s clear that your work is about community and interconnectedness. The word “connected” pops up frequently in the book. How do you experience the feeling of being connected in your daily life? What does being connected mean to you?
I want to be able to see the world as it was before I was taught that reason and logic and science had to be superimposed on the universe. It seems like somewhere along the way, most of the westernized world has lost the sense that fire, mountains, water, rocks and the whole of nature is a dynamic living organism. I still like interacting with the super market check out person, it reminds me that I am human.
Are the designs that appear on your clothing and skateboards separate from your print work, or do you reproduce the same image on multiple mediums?
Lately I’ve been really into the idea of reproducing the same image on multiple mediums. If it looks nice on a T-shirt and people embrace it, then why can’t it be a poster too. Most of my work happens to be designed for print, screen printing to be specific. So I have no problems printing it over and over and over….
Do you have a dream project, or is there a particular artist that you would one day hope to work with?
I’d be really interested in creating three-dimensional sets for a large-scale fantasy play. It would be radical to build a life-sized world of fictional environments using old world gadgets.
