Stephen Huneck

I saw some prints on a website that reminded me of Stephen Hunecks work. I know sometimes art is made that is similar to that of other artists - it happened to me at uni as I made a number of large lithographs of hearts. At assessment I was asked about the obvious influence Jim Dine had on my work...hmmm really? Yeah I was familiar with Jim Dines work, but not his hearts, but it is a heart, it is a shape, Jim Dine did not have sole ownership on its use! And then there was the print of heart with wings - it appeared on a mambo design about 4 years after I made that print at uni. But again - not a completely out there concept.

So today when I saw a bunch of animal prints and I immediately thought of Stephen Huneck. The prints were of animals, and in them you could see what the animals were thinking. Like Stephen Hunecks. I don't know - the fact that I related it so quickly to Stephen Hunecks work made me really uncomfortable, especially since I hadn't looked at his work for a few years (after buying some books and prints from his website).

Anyway, as I was looking for the print in question (so I could show the non Stephen Huneck folk) I found out that Stephen Huneck killed himself in January. That made me sad, and thats why I wrote about all of this because his work was so happy and lovely and fun, and I wanted you to know about him.