Meet The Artist

Jeff Stuckey knew from a young age that he wanted to be an artist. As a child he was drawing before he was walking or talking. He drew and painted on whatever he could find using anything he could find. He drew on the back of paneling with crayons, wearing those crayons down to nothing. Supplies were at his finger tips because his mother was also an artist and only too happy to encourage his passion.

When he was young, he planned to pursue a career as either a wildlife artist or cartoonist. Jeff never had formal training while he was young based on advice from many professional artists. So Jeff taught himself the formal techniques of the masters. He became an accomplished classical painter and sketch artist before he was driving. He read everything he could get his hands on regarding the masters of the past and the artists of the 20th century. Many hours were spent in the summer at the Jefferson County Library in Birmingham Alabama. In the process he learned to both use and understand the many styles that make up the tapestry of Fine Arts. During this time the closest he came to formal training was 4 years of drafting.

On the sly, one of Jeff's teachers entered his portfolio in a Southern High School Artist Contest. As a result, he was invited to enter in the Scholarship Contest for Fine Arts at Birmingham Southern College. To his great surprise he won a scholarship to one of the countries finest schools with a great Arts program. During Jeff's time at Birmingham Southern he discovered sculpture and the joy of the company of other artists. Jeff continued his art studies at The University of Alabama - Birmingham as well as studying his other love, history.

By the time Jeff left college he was frustrated with the arts community. Modernism was destroying everything he held dear in Art. It seemed to be leaving an ugliness in its wake created by the self absorption of its artist and its desire to shock the viewer. Worse yet it was being embraced as the only true art and all else was being relegated to the side lines as unimportant. To Jeff this was the abandonment of 25,000 years of art in human history in favor of shock artists concerned only with their own self aggrandizement. In disgust he stopped all of his painting and drawing and only after several years began dabbling in sculpture again, as he felt it was less tainted by the movement.

Jeff held several positions throughout his post-collegiate years including political campaign coordinator, computer help desk manager, and network management. Throughout this time he always knew his life was on the wrong course. It was becoming more obvious he would have to begin working as an artist again. He sculpted his own line of military miniatures and took commissioned work for other companies. Jeff's military sculptures have been sold throughout the world.

In 1999, Jeff accepted Christ as his savior and became a Christian. Over the next year, as his relationship with God became closer, it became inescapable he had not been on the path God intended. It was another year before Jeff would give himself over to this and begin working again, trusting that what ever the future held he was doing what had been intended for him since birth. Since this time Jeff has felt called to created images that reflect the love, beauty, and glory of God's creation. He works hard to apply his knowledge of art and how people view the world around them. His style has developed and evolved rapidly in the short time since he began showing in the Spring of 2002. It has been compared to many but as Jeff will quickly tell you, "Painting for me is how I talk to God and try to show what I see as the beauty of his creation to others. Any resemblance between my work and other artist has more to do with our similar relationship with God than it does with style." In May of 2003, after showing for only a little more than a year, Jeff had his first solo show. As he is quick to say, "If that is not God at work I do not know what it is."