Steve Deihl was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1960. He attended the University of Iowa, Iowa City and Parsons School of Design, Paris.

Deihl’s deep blue oil paintings on wood panels from a series entitled “Celestial Navigations” are, as the artist says, “a culmination of several ideas: they can be seen as ‘star charts’ (literally, a section of deep space and the various routes between star systems), and ‘flow charts’ (symbolically, the underlying structure of networks revealed by the interconnections in logic systems, biological systems, or communication systems).

As one looks into the artist’s celestial spaces, one’s eyes adjust to the dark of the night sky and follow trajectories of sparkling, twinkling stars, and intertwining, web-like orbits. Some of the paintings are densely populated with galactic activity, others less so. Some works are titled by a Greek letter, according to the standard naming of stars, descending in magnitude of brightness; alpha being the brightest, beta the next bright-est, etc., others are titled in the order they were completed. Like the night sky filled with stars, Deihl’s paintings mesmerize the viewer, drawing one deeper and deeper into physical and universal space.

Not unlike a scientist whose pursuit it is to examine cellular life under the microscope in its infinite and various permutations, Deihl takes his eyes, mind and hand to the sky to examine its variations in range, breadth and depth. As Deihl says: “the ‘Celestial Navigation’ series is a closer view of the sky, or even ‘nature’ in general, revealing an interior view of its ‘processes,’ for example, by referencing sub-atomic particle events (reminiscent of Hydrogen Bubble Chambers).”

As a University of Iowa undergraduate, Deihl began his studies with a focus on astronomy and engineering. One summer during his college years, he studied in Paris under the auspices of Parsons School of Design. As a result, he shifted his major and decided to become an artist. His keen interest in science has stayed with him as a passion and source for his work. In spring 2001, during a residency at the Bellevue Art Museum in Washington, Deihl offered lectures showing slides of his paintings along with slides of Hubble Space Telescope images, combining his love of the heavens, astronomy and art. Deihl says of his juxtaposition: “It underscores the conceptual similarities found in science and art.”