Noted artist and Medina resident Steve Pietzsch spoke about his art and his career at the Medina Faith and Freedom Club on May 13.
Pietzsch was born, grew up in Dallas, and went to college at North Texas State University. He calls his life story “from hippie to hillbilly.”
After graduating with an advertising art degree, Pietzsch spent twenty years in Dallas working in the commercial art scene.
He worked for the Bloom Ad Agency, doing routine illustrations for products advertised in the newspaper.
It was during that time that he became acquainted with a group of artists that submitted art to magazines.
Wanting a change, Pietzsch then transitioned to become a part of a private art group called “Studio X” where he focused on more unique original art sold to magazines and businesses.
During his twenty-year career in the field of commercial art, he sold covers to Texas Monthly, Omni, and the Rolling Stone.
He was part of an elite circle that created illustrated covers for Rolling Stone. Ninety percent of that magazine’s covers are photographs, but he was one of the artists called to submit illustrated covers which comprised the other 10 percent.
He also spent a lot of time freelancing for Texas Monthly, doing covers and interiors. He illustrated several covers for their yearly “Bum Steer Awards” as well as covers of Ross Perot and Ronald Reagann for the magazine.
During that time, he also was part of a calendar entitled “Where You’d Rather Be.” This expanded his career as a freelance artist which had been a goal of Pietzsch’s.
Looking for a change, Pietzsch went to Austin where he was recruited by one of the first online multiplayer game producers, Richard Garriot.
Pietzsch was one of Garriot’s art employees at Origin Systems. The first game he worked on for Garriot was a World War II game. He built airplane models to help illustrate the concepts used in the game.
Switching from two-dimensional art to three-dimensional art, Pietzsch said, was “quite tricky for me.”
He then went to work for Digital Anvil, the producer of the wildly popular Wing Commander game.
Pietzsch also worked for game producer Certain Affinity and worked on Age of Booty, a pirate themed game. He also produced background environments for the Halo franchise.
Pietzsch spent 15 years digitally illustrating online gaming content.
Pietzsch got tired of the busy nature of Austin and acquired property in Medina where he built an art studio attached to his cabin.
“The whole idea was to move here (Medina) to paint what I wanted to paint,” said Pietzsch.
After moving to Medina, he began exploring the Hill Country and finding subjects in the hills, flowers, and landscape.
In Medina, he began his interest in landscapes of the Hill Country with paintings of 3 feet by 5 feet.
He got back into two-dimensional art by painting cactuses, a common Hill Country plant. He has painted many pictures with elements of realism and surrealism mixed. Some of his paintings depict subjects in their actual size, like his large sunflowers.
Pietzsch brought many examples of his art which he shared with the audience. He signed notecard copies of his whimsical painting “Beep, Beep,” a realistic drawing of a roadrunner on a cartoon background.
Pietzsch continues his painting and visits his many artist acquaintances across the nation.
An active senior, Steve Pietzsch has found his home in the scenic environment of Medina where he paints as much as he likes and enjoys his retirement.
The Faith and Freedom Club will meet again on Monday, June 10th from 4 PM to 5:30 at the Rodney Camp Pavilion of the Medina Community Library.
The speaker will be Medina native Chris De-Leon who will be honored for his Navy service at the club’s annual Flag Day Celebration. DeLeon is a noted local photographer and will share some of his work.
The reception will begin at three o’clock with the program starting at four p.m. The club meets on the second Monday of the month at the Medina Community Library.
For more information, contact Vicki Shroyer at 830-955-0960.
