| About The Artist Steven Besselman Steven Besselman was born in St. Charles, Missouri on April 1, 1950 and moved to Houston in 1976. In 1977 Besselman, being an artist at heart and finding Houston's architecture so interesting, applied his talent in documenting Houston's present and past on paper. Besselman's media was graphite on paper. Such noted buildings in Besselman's collection include: La Carafe, The Old Cotton Exchange Building on Travis, Harris County Civil Courts Building, City Hall, The M & M Building and many others, including Houston downtown cityscapes. Besselman's other primary media was zinc plate etchings. The Shamrock, Transco Tower and downtown sculptures are a few of his etchings. In commenting on the Besselman style, it seems of primary importance to state "the artist is self-styled." Noteworthy characteristics of his compositions were his attention to minute detail, the sharpness of the lines and shading. Besselman realized a natural talent and worked constantly on developing and adding to it. Steven Besselman began his professional career at the age of 26, thus devoting his full energy to what earlier had been a pleasurable hobby. Inspiration came from the city of Houston. The artist felt that the city lent itself to be drawn illustratively. Conversely, had he lived in the country, he would have been inspired to paint. Color was eliminated so that black and white would define the precise architectural detail, a distinguishing feature of his work. Steven felt that his graphic chronicle of the city demanded exacting detail. Besselman believed he had found his purpose and continued in his pursuit to record our continuously changing environment. Steven Besselman is a legend that will live long in Texas. His meticulous artistic talent kept the historic landmarks alive today in exact form. Classic sketches of Houston's oldest buildings, many now torn down, have been preserved through the hands of Steven Besselman. Steven never met a stranger and shared his wonderful smiles with many people as he continued to sketch Houston, a true love affair he carried on until he died in mid-January 1989. Steven lives through his sketches filled with such intricacy that they continue to awaken and marvel the senses beyond dreams. Steven's standards of creativity were so high that it would have required a long lifetime to have become nationally recognized in the manner that he truly deserved. Once in a while an artist will come along who has the potential to alter the nature of the world community. Steven was one of those rare artists. But the art community is restricted to only those works that Steven had time to finish. We can hope that what we have of his art will be used to further the ends which he intended. Steven Besselman always wanted to be remembered through his art. Due to his talent, Houston architecture will also be remembered and preserved. His work displayed a true love for the city of Houston. Our thanks to Steven for allowing so much of Houston's past to continue to exist in our memories. |
About The Artist-Besselman
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