Oil
Greatly know for his use of different mediums and disciplines, Aaron Hodges work is described as story telling based in historical and contemporary events usually revolving around nautical themes. These narratives tend to make their home in a world of dark and muted colors. His primary form of art making is performed through tattooing, while pulling inspiration from tattooers like Burchette, Bigmore and Collins. While his oil painting and personal work reference the old masters of the renaissance like Rembrandt, Caravaggio and Rubens. Then those two different mediums start to have a conversation and thats where his work takes on a look of its own.
Having spent four honorable years in the United States Navy and from his early days at sea with his grandfather, Aaron tends to find his way back to the ocean often in his work. Whether its an oil painting of a clipper ship in a rough sea or a sea monster tattoo on a client, there is no mistaking where his heart lies. You can see this connection to ocean and his love for nature through the art he creates and the stories that are told.
The resurgence of American traditional tattooing has really allowed Aaron to explore these themes on a regular basis and to start to bridge, as well as blur, the lines between tattoo art and fine art. This resurgence along with his Bachelor of Fine arts, which he received from California College of the Arts in 2009, has really provided the clients as well as commission work to explore this on a more frequent basis.
When asked how he feels about tattooing after 15 years, he had this to say. “ I love tattooing more than I did when I was just starting out, maybe its because I have worked jobs I didn’t love in the past, but something that I realized is that I really have a very special and important job. To add to someones canvas they will carry with them for the rest of their time on this earth is an honor. These tattoos cannot only be very therapeutic for a variety of reasons stemming from very small to very large, they can also really add to someones body and make them feel good about the skin they are in and thats important”.
You can Find Aaron currently working at Spider Murphys Tattoo in San Rafael California. He can also be reached through email at aaron@aaronhodgesart.com and his instagram is aaronhodgesart.