Steven Pearson, M.F.A

I grew up in Johnstown, New York, in the foothills of the Adirondacks in what is known as the Leatherstocking region. I always liked to draw, and art was one of the few things I was good at. I never thought of it as a career though, and college seemed like an unrealistic goal due to the cost. Being a first-generation college student, college wasn’t something my family talked about or something I seriously considered.

Instead, I joined the Navy on the Delayed Entry Program before my senior year of high school, thinking that would be my career. I went to bootcamp in Orlando, Florida, just as Tom Cruise’s Top Gun was in theaters in the summer of 1986. Although Pete Mitchell (Tom Cruise’s character) made a career in the Navy, I did not. I felt the need to continue my learning by pursuing art.

I earned an associate in arts degree in Studio Art from Fulton-Montgomery Community College and a bachelor’s degree in Studio Art from the College of Saint Rose. I attended graduate school at the Maryland Institute College of Art’s Leroy E. Hoffberger School of Painting to study under Grace Hartigan, a well-known abstract expressionist painter who rose to prominence in the 1950s.

I returned to Saint Rose as an adjunct professor of painting and drawing, where I taught for four years. I maintained my art practice in a large studio in an old shoe factory in Albany, New York. At the same time, I kept a full-time job as a security site supervisor for two malls in the Schenectady region. Unfortunately, unlike Paul Blart, I did not get to patrol the mall on a Segue.

In 2001, I began teaching foundations-level Art at Iowa State University. I learned a lot about teaching, and it was the first time I could teach and make art without needing a second job.

I’ve worked with great students who have challenged me to be a better teacher and artist. They’ve gone on to graduate schools like the Maryland Institute College of Art, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, American University, Otis College of Art, Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland, and the School of Visual Arts.

In 2022, I did my first Student-Faculty Collaborative Summer Research with two amazing students, Kate Cramer and Juliana Stolkovich. That experience reinvigorated my teaching and my art practice, helping me find my way as I follow a new direction in my artwork.