A world art tour — under sail
Artist Steve Van Ronk stops in Ilwaco on his quest for art
Coastal Life
Story and photos by DWIGHT CASWELL
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The Mystique nods at its slip in Ilwaco, Wash- not galleries.
ington, as Steve Van Ronk moves around the deck
“My approach to marketing my art hasn’t made
securing lines and sails. He is watched closely by me rich,” he says, “but it has made 10 years of
Aleutia, a retired champion search-and-rescue WUDYHOLQJDURXQGWKHZRUOGH[SORULQJ
dog now working security aboard the 41-foot other cultures. There are people who
ketch. He goes below, brews herbal tea, and be- dream all their lives of doing what
JLQVWRWDON$WKHLVERWK¿WDQGHEXOOLHQWWKH I’ve done.”
words and ideas are a torrent, the outpourings of
In the 1980s, Van Ronk had stu-
an energetic mind.
dios in New Zealand and Australia,
“The whole idea of getting this boat was to do where he also taught mechanics to
a world art tour,” says Van Ronk. “I’ll go to places an aboriginal tribe with no written
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ary, which leaves me open to opportunities. It’s not “stimulated my interest in art as an
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The Mystique was built in 1975, and Van Ronk than decorative objects,” which in
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turn led to, “a quest
ocean voyage since he bought it
to understand art
in 2013. While the boat may be
as a psychological
a new project, the way of life,
process and mysti-
which he calls “a quest for art,”
cal tradition.”
is not. He served in the Navy in
In the 1990s, he
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EHJDQ UH¿WWLQJ JDV
both, “opened my mind to inter-
oline cars with elec-
national culture and closed my
tric engines, and
mind to politics and b.s.”
then began “a con- “Untitled 2,” a painting on glass by Steve Van Ronk.
Discharged in 1972, Van
ceptual art piece to
Ronk opened a small
get the public to start think-
stained glass shop in
ing about the possibility of
North Lake Tahoe be-
electric vehicles.” This was
cause, “No one was doing
a program that encourages
stained glass at the time
high school students to
and I thought it was pret-
build and race small elec-
ty.” He had no training
tric vehicles, now called
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Electrathon America. He
glass, but that didn’t stop
designed the “e-mule,” a
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small solar utility vehicle,
to do it by trial and error.”
and is developing an edu-
Unhampered by rules or
cational program for home
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schooling, using construc-
vented his life through “Untitled,” a painting on glass by Steve Van Ronk.
tion of the e-mule to teach
continuous improvisation.
about science, energy and
In 1973 he bought a Ford truck and built a PHFKDQLFV +H EHOLHYHV WKDW WKH QH[W JHQHUDWLRQ
wooden house and stained glass studio on it. Ta- properly inspired, will take solar energy, “beyond
bles on the sides folded down for glass working anything we can think of.”
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Today, Van Ronk’s art is primarily “reverse
shows. He set out on a three-year art tour of the painting on glass” — that is, images painted on
western United States and discovered that he the back surface of the glass as it is displayed.
GLGQ¶WQHHGWR¿QGJDOOHULHV/LNHDVKLSLQSDFN The resulting paintings have brilliant colors and
LFHKHIROORZVWKHOHDGVWKDWRSHQXSKHWDNHVWKH a three-dimensional effect.
opportunities “that fall into my lap.”
Not long ago, Van Ronk asked himself a ques-
“The only guarantee is in the public market,” tion many have asked: If I could do anything in
Van Ronk says. Sometimes people see his work the world, what would I do? “The answer,” he
LQDÀHDPDUNHWDQGDVNKLPWRGRFXVWRPLQVWDO says, “came spontaneously: to get a cruising sail-
lations in their homes. He’s done architectural boat and travel, showing and living from my art.
work with stone and tile, learning by working This set the path I now tread.”
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Van Ronk has discovered that, “We are sur-
Photo by Dwight Caswell
beautiful custom woodwork in the same way. He rounded by magic.” Then he asks, “Are you prac-
KDVFROOHFWRUVZKREX\KLVZRUNDWÀHDPDUNHWV ticing magic or just seeking transitory delights?” Steve Van Ronk stands on the deck of his ship, The Mystique, at the Port of Ilwaco.
Unhampered by rules
or expectations, he
has invented his life
through continuous
improvisation.
4 | January 22, 2015 | coastweekend.com
For more
information about
Steve Van Ronk,
go to his website,
slvanronk.com