Priscilla Steele and Thomas C. Jackson have been drawing the human form since the late 1960s. In 2008, Jackson joined Steele’s life drawing group, meeting 3-4 hours twice every week. From these prolific sessions ensued a constant stream of vast bodies of work from each artist that are united in their source but disparate in their execution and sensibilities. Drawing is the most fundamental skill of an artist’s training. Since classical Greece and the Italian Renaissance, the human body has been held as the artistic ideal, elevating life drawing to the gold standard of artistic training. Through the works of Steele and Jackson, Dialog Human explores life drawing as an intersection and a common thread sustaining an infinite dialog.
Priscilla Steele was raised in New Jersey. She received her B.A. from St Lawrence University in Canton, New York and M.A. and M.F.A. in Printmaking from the University of Iowa. She also studied at the Art Students League in New York City, the Kansas City Art Institute, and Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. Steele is a vital member of the art community in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa area, serving on numerous committees and teaching art at Coe College for 18 years. Since 1991, she and her husband have owned and operated the renowned Campbell Steele Gallery in Marion, Iowa where she also maintains an active studio practice. Steele has exhibited in Dubuque at the 2012 Voices from the Warehouse District and Gallery C in 2014.
Thomas C. Jackson was born in Rock Island, Illinois. He received his B.A. from Western Illinois University and M.F.A. from the University of Notre Dame. Jackson taught art at Mount Mercy University before pursuing a distinguished career in advertising and marketing. Since retiring in 2000 from Stamats, Inc. in Cedar Rapids, he has achieved a second successful career as an artist. Jackson had a solo exhibition at the Dubuque Museum of Art in 2008 and was part of the 2015 DUMA Biennial and the exhibition New Expressionists in 2002. He lives with his wife in Cedar Rapids.