Bio

Paul Roden was born in 1979 to nomadic parents living in Nashville, Tennessee.  He was mostly a self-taught draftsman until enrolling in the Washington University Fine Arts Department in 1997, finishing with a BFA in Printmaking.  It was not until his graduate studies that he focused on color woodcuts, researching their social role in Japanese culture and their role as disseminators of propaganda in early Western media.  In 2004 he graduated from the University of South Dakota, Vermillion with his MFA.  Currently, Paul resides in Pittsburgh with his wife Valerie Lueth, who also makes socially poignant prints.  Together they have started Tugboat Printshop, where they are able to help artists unfamiliar with printmaking processes create progressive editions.

Artist Statement

I arrange symbols in quasi-believable landscapes. Highlighting the similarities and differences of images and what they symbolize all occurs in the proximity of narratives. I strive for generic drawing, making things look very normal, almost believable, but not realistic.

Currently, large scale color woodcuts are my medium of choice. Their inherently graphic look satisfies a desire for propaganda, while their ability to be reproduced speaks to an anti-elite art aesthetic. Using woodcuts is a way to practice responsible art-making. They are perfectly acceptable in the gallery setting, but have a history of agitation and promotion of awareness to social issues and change. I strive to make images that are aesthetically non-repulsive, but contain a subversive agenda in the interaction of their symbols.