The UNTOLD GAZE

The Untold Gaze will be a large format, full color hardcover art book featuring more than seventy of my paintings, combined with works of short fiction (and a few poems) written by more than thirty authors, each piece inspired by a particular painting. An introductory essay will be written by Bob Hicks, longtime arts writer and editor for The Oregonian and The Oregon Journal, and now a senior editor at Oregon ArtsWatch.

My work is always narrative, touching on many themes—gender, history, beauty, longing—but the stories I paint are mostly ambiguous; they lie just beyond the frame, through an open doorway, within an obscure look or gesture. The authors included in The Untold Gaze share the stories they discover beyond that frame, exploring the rich, nuanced, and often quite unexpected terrain that lies between visual art and the written story.

The authors who so graciously accepted our invitation to be a part of this collection include Cheryl Strayed, Lidia Yuknavitch, Tom Spanbauer, Monica Drake, Whitney Otto, Megan Kruse, Scott Sparling, Vanessa Veselka, Robert Hill, Margaret Malone, and many others. The pieces they've written range from farce to tragedy to science fiction. They feature settings as diverse as a train, a salmon stream, a public pool’s locker room, a palace, a doctor’s office. These are stories of lust and wit, youth and death, yearning and resignation. Of patient gardeners, lost fathers and jealous sisters, amorous satyrs, beauty pageant queens – drag queens, queens – bad actors and confused gamblers, fly-fishermen and courtesans and post-apocalyptic alien overlords.


We started work on The Untold Gaze three years ago. Since then, the paintings have been chosen, authors solicited, the stories have been written, edited, and copy-edited. We're in the process of laying out the book now, preparing it for the printers. Our biggest challenge, of course, has been finding a way to fund this project, a project that we always knew would be costly to produce if it were to be given the careful attention it deserved. At the end of last year, we were awarded a generous grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC) in an amount that will cover about half of the production costs. Combined with our own contribution, the amount requested here is to make up the difference and enable us to fully fund the project.

With a successful completion of this fundraising campaign, we hope to send the finished book off to the printers at the end of June/beginning of July, with our launch event planned for late this summer.

We would be so appreciative of any support that you can give to help us finish this project and make The Untold Gaze a reality.


The Untold Gaze will be an 11x11, full-color hardback, approximately 175 pages, planned print run of 600-700 copies. The book will be privately distributed; currently, it is not expected that the book will be available in bookstores.

Support levels:

Any amount at all – Our eternal gratitude.

$20.00 – Your name included in the book's printed acknowledgments as a contributor to the project + our eternal gratitude.

$40.00 – A personalized thank you card with an image of the artist’s work + your name included in the book's printed acknowledgments as a contributor to the project + our eternal gratitude.

$65.00 – A copy of The Untold Gaze, inscribed by the artist and editor + your name included in the book's printed acknowledgments as a contributor to the project + our eternal gratitude.

$150.00 – A copy of The Untold Gaze, inscribed by the artist and editor + your name included in the book’s printed acknowledgements as a contributor to the project + a signed and numbered 8x11 (approximate) fine art reproduction of one of my paintings – the image may be chosen by the supporter from a group selected by the artist, and the printing will be done at Pushdot Studio under the artist’s supervision + our eternal gratitude.

$250.00 – Two copies of The Untold Gaze, inscribed by the artist and editor + your name included in the book’s printed acknowledgements as a contributor to the project + a signed and numbered 11x14 (approximate) fine art reproduction of one of my paintings – the image may be chosen by the supporter from a group selected by the artist, and the printing will be done at Pushdot Studio under the artist’s supervision + our eternal gratitude.

$500.00 – Two copies of The Untold Gaze, inscribed by the artist and editor + your name included in the book’s printed acknowledgements as a *special* contributor to the project + a large signed and numbered 16x20 (approximate) fine art reproduction of one of my paintings – the image may be chosen by the supporter from a group selected by the artist, and the printing will be done at Pushdot Studio under the artist’s supervision + our eternal gratitude.

$5500.00 – All of the above + I, Stephen, the esteemed artist, will come and clean your oven for you.

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Notes: I have never done prints of my work and – beyond this campaign – have no intention of ever doing so again.

Once we receive the shipment of completed books, we expect to be able to mail out “reward” copies within no more than a month’s time. (local supporters may be able to get their books sooner, if we don’t need to mail them out.) Supporters who will receive a print as well as a book(s) can expect to receive their “rewards” within approximately the same time frame, but this will depend on how timely they are in making their choice of image to be printed.  All “rewards” will be delivered - no more - than four months after our receipt of the finished books.

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Full author list: Stephen Arndt, Liz Asch, Jude Brewer, Matty Byloos, Doug Chase, David Ciminello, Sean Davis, Monica Drake, Colin Farstad, Dian Greenwood, Sara Guest, Robert Hill, Lisa Kaser, Megan Kruse, Kathleen Lane, Margaret Malone, Kevin Meyer, Karen Munro, Whitney Otto, Michael Sage Ricci, Bradley K. Rosen, Sam Roxas-Chua, Stephen Rutledge, Edie Rylander, Liz Scott, Evelyn Sharenov, Tom Spanbauer, Scott Sparling, Laura Stanfill, Cheryl Strayed, Adam Strong, Vanessa Veselka, Suzy Vitello, Lidia Yuknavich