Artist as Local Hero: George Stevenson

Every original work of art is by definition “unique.” So it would be wrong to say that some art is “really unique.” But I’m going to say it anyway. George Stevenson’s art is really unique. The uniqueness is not about his style or subject matter, but his personal story – the unlikely path that led him to become a painter. Once you know his story, your view of his art will be changed forever.

Stevenson, who turns 65 next month, is from Cold Spring. I’m not exactly sure of the credentials required to be considered a true “Springer” but he certainly qualifies. In the 1960s, he was one of the best athletes in Putnam County. His 43 pass receptions as an end for the Haldane High School football team still stand as the single-season record. After high school, Stevenson went to work for Con Edison, in his words as a “grunt.” After working there for almost five years he was drafted into the US Army and soon found himself in thick of things in the Vietnam War.

EXPORT THROUGH He served in the 199th Light Infantry Brigade, “The Old Guard.” Stevenson recalls near-daily flights by helicopter into rice paddies where the chance of a firefight was constant. In one five-day span, each of the five pilots who flew him into battle was killed in action. He fought in the Mekong delta. He survived the firefights. He survived a battle with malaria. He lost many of his friends including two of his closest—his beloved Sergeant Perry and William “Thunder” Thornton.

Stevenson survived Vietnam, returned to Cold Spring, and began working for the New York Telephone Company. Within about a year he suffered a stroke that left him without the use of his right arm and his right leg. He also lost his ability to speak. He never regained the use of his arm. He learned to walk again but with a severe limp favoring his badly weakened right leg. Over time he regained some of his speech—but can only talk in short, two or three word phrases.

As part of his therapy, and to simply pass the time, Stevenson took up painting. A natural right-hander, he learned to paint with his left hand. For ten years he made a weekly trip by taxi to Wappinger Falls for art lessons from a teacher named Cassie, who he describes simply as “the best.” Today

he still boards the train to

New York City every week EXPORT EPS THROUGH to continue learning more about this craft. Of his lessons and painting in general Stevenson says, “It’s hard boy. It’s hard. Like it though. Like it.”

Stevenson credits art with having helped him deal with the horrors of war. many of his early paintings depict graphic scenes from Vietnam: downed helicopters, explosions, guns, bodies, and fire. The colors are dark. Today his paintings feature bright vivid colors and depict scenes that are happy, full of life and nature. Local residents will relate to many of them—Dockside restaurant, fireworks at the Cold Spring gazebo, Haldane football, hockey on a local pond, horse farms, Coney Island, the New York subway, the Hudson River, and the Hudson Highlands.

Stevenson paints in a primitive style and uses oils exclusively. He estimates that more than four hundred paintings bear his distinctive “G” over Stevenson trademark signature.

Most take him two weeks DISTILLER to a month to complete and his home studio is chock full of dozens of paintings, some complete and some worksin progress. Many contain a very personal touch—the small black figures of his two boyhood dogs, Lucky and Snoopy.

Stevenson’s paintings can be seen in a number of places around Cold Spring including Wachovia Bank and the Ellen Hayden Gallery on Main Street. The latter once hosted an exhibit of Stevenson’s work at which all 20 paintings sold in one afternoon. I asked Hayden about Stevenson’s art. “His ability to produce great naiveté folk art is incredible. I think he was empowered by his misfortune—it made him an excellent artist.”

Value is a difficult to define, ripe for debate, and always “in the eye of the beholder.” How can a baseball card be valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars? How can a painting be valued at many millions of dollars? Stevenson’s paintings sell in the $100 to $300 range. A few years ago I was browsing in a gallery in Lennox, Massachusetts that featured work very similar to Stevenson’s. To my average eye the subject matter was no more interesting; the detail no greater; the colors no more vivid. Those paintings sold for $1,000 to $1,400. What does that mean, if anything? All I know is that I value the George Stevenson paintings that I own in a very personal way. Their value lies not just in the images on the canvas but in the story of the man who created them. It is unique art and George Stevenson is a unique artist—and a true local hero.