Mike Hostetler

I've been interested in Art since I was a little kid. The problem is I've bounced all over the place and haven't gained a good understanding of any particular medium. I find my strengths are using pencil and charcoal, but that makes sense since most of my formal training has been in drawing. I’ve taken several art classes in the past and received a Minor in studio arts from Norwich University in 2003. My favorite class was Life Drawing. The class met twice a week for 3 hours at a time. We would spend the first 20mins of the class “warming-up”; the model would pose for 20seconds or so and you would quickly gesture out the form. After warm-ups we would work on longer poses, some lasting the entire class. It was a drawing workout; in fact the professor made everyone stand the entire 3hr class. Regardless of the strange class behavior I felt I learned a lot, and could see drastic improvements from my early drawing to the ones at the end of the course.

After graduating I spent the next 6 years in the Air Force working as an Electrical Engineer (my original degree). I separated from the Air Force in August 2009 and, with the help of the new GI bill, decided to pursue my passion for Art again. I'm excited to learn more about different mediums including 3D and find which one, "floats my boat". I’ve had limited experience with 3D and sculpture. When I was around 11 years old I stumbled on an old chisel set of my Dad's… A couple of TV tutorials later, I was chiseling away in the garage. I ended up making something that looked similar to both a dog and giraffe; my Mom liked it anyways. About a year ago I got the itch to carve something again. This time I didn’t have the chisels, and did most of the work with a simple carving knife and sandpaper. There was no hidden meaning to the sculpture; I like sharks and wanted to carve something that wasn’t too complex. Here are a couple pictures I took along the way. I was really happy with how it turned out, and even happier with how the grain of the wood added to the look of the sculpture (I wasn’t planning on that).
Since these photos I stained and varnished the shark, and it’s setting on a shelf collecting dust. I’ve been meaning to do something else, but I’d like to get a set of good chisels before attempting another sculpture. I’d also like to do something a bit larger. The shark dimensions are about 9”x4”x3”, made from a pine 2”x4”… if you were wondering.