STEVE HORVAT

BIOGRAPHY - May 2005

Well where to go with this? I am all over the map. I started expressing myself through art at the ripe old age of 36. I will keep the story short. I went to a family wedding in Prague in 1997. My aunt Olinka Broadfoot is a wonderful creative spirit and she was living in Prague at the time creating and  teaching art. Her studio was  filled with sculptures and paintings. Olinka introduced me to many wonderful artists during the month that I was there. I was surrounded with expressive, creative. passionate people in a vibrant colorful city. This experience had a major impact on me. It took a couple of years for me to do anything about it.

     Now back in Vancouver, I am hanging out with my dear friend Margie Gang who is sitting at her pottery wheel making a pot and she asks me to have a go at it. It is not an easy task to throw a pot for the first time. I am not one to give up easily though, and with Margie’s encouragement and help we make a couple of pots. I enjoyed the process immensely and still have the pieces to this day.

      I decided to look into the art courses at Capilano College. It was suggested to me to try a drawing course so I enrolled in a beginners drawing course. Kiff Holland was the instructor. He is a wonderful artist and a wonderful teacher. So now I am hooked on the idea of pursuing this. I look  into the programs available and decide to scrape together a sad, thin portfolio and apply to the studio art program.

     I remember walking into the interview with a couple of underwater photographs, some bad drawings and a whole bunch of  bullshit about how I need to express myself through art or I will be unhappy for the rest of my life and it will all be your fault. Good old Barry Cogswell asked me questions about who my favorite artist was and why I wanted to take the course as he briefly scanned my meager offerings of a portfolio. Anyways, I do not know how or why but I was accepted into the program part time. Huge thanks go out to the instructors of the Capilano College Studio Art Program, for this experience has profoundly changed my life.

    So now I draw constantly. I explore the world and my emotions through painting and drawing. It is amazing therapy for me and I will continue to be a student, for the arts are a never ending journey with endless possibilities.