Laura Bush: A Legacy of Literacy
Steph Hagens
Ink and gouache on cotton rag paper
$200
Artist Statement
I captured our First Lady from 2001-2009 in a light that reflects her policies and lifelong passion: education. Laura was a second grade teacher and later a librarian, and made early education a priority during her time in the White House. My painting is created by desaturating and printing a photo of Mrs. Bush from her reading to children at the 2006 White House Easter Egg Roll. I used an overpainting of gouache to transform the work with arbitrary color. In the folds of her coat, I highlighted abstracted letters to give the viewer a sense of what it may feel like to be illiterate- the feeling of struggling to decipher a letter or word. The book becomes a poster for the initiative that she created, "Ready to Read, Ready to Learn", which promotes reading from a young age. In the background, a partial silhouette of Texas can be seen, which is a callout to her time as First Lady of Texas.
About the Artist
Steph Hagens is a mixed media artist and Entrepreneur. A native of Denver, North Carolina, Steph has been creating art since childhood and was motivated by her friends and family to pursue her passion as a career. Steph gained a BA in Studio Art from the University of North Carolina in 2007, where she specialized in Figure Drawing. Before moving to Madison, WI in 2015, Steph had a 9-year career in the film industry as an Illustrator and Costumer. She has created custom art for characters played by Sophia Bush, Viola Davis, Chloë Grace Moretz, Alec Baldwin, and Christopher Lloyd. Continuing education has served an important role in advancing Steph’s career. She has been included in the No Boundaries International Artist colony, pursued continuing studies in figure drawing and graphics at both UW- Madison and Madison Area Technical College, and served as a career advisor for the MATC Fashion Merchandising Program. She currently resides in downtown Madison where she enjoys summertime festivals, building snowmen, and sampling the finest cheese Wisconsin has to offer. Her work can be found in public and private collections throughout the US, UK, Singapore, and Germany.