For the past two years, Maplewood resident Ken Stanek has been a full-time artist, earning his way through art walks, website sales, a book launch, teaching and more.
An accomplished portraitist, Stanek has a gift for capturing a look, a feeling, a personality with a few strokes of his brush or pen.
Lately, he’s been using that skill to bring places to life — and the people in them. Stanek’s watercolors of local SOMA businesses have put him literally on the map in South Orange and Maplewood.
“I think I’d been toying around with the idea of doing that for a couple years,” said Stanek regarding the career move from graphic designer to full-time artist.
It’s a pursuit that in short order has produced commissions, such as an illustrated map of Maplewood Village for the Maplewood Village Alliance, and a series of local business portraits that have been captured in a book, About Town: SOMA, The Illustrations of Ken Stanek. [Order a copy at www.studionumbernine.net or purchase at A Paper Hat, Perch Home or Words.]
Ken Stanek’s Maplewood Village map: About that Maplewood Village map, “It’s an idealized version,” said Stanek. “I liked adding in little Easter eggs. I put the gum wall in. Or the little turnaround sign in the parking lot by Perch Home. Things like that.”
Stanek is also teaching classes — including Watercolor at The Baird, for adults and, coming soon, for middle school-aged children — and co-hosting figure drawing sessions at the DeHart Community Center in Maplewood and Green Door Studio in Millburn.
Regarding his business portraits, Stanek credited Mika Braakman, proprietor of A Paper Hat, with encouraging his sketch art: “Mika introduced me to this little square sketchbook. She said, ‘It’s gonna change your life.’ It was magical.”
“I’ve always been an artist, but I didn’t pick up watercolors until about eight or nine years ago,” said Stanek. “I discovered this is clearly my medium.”
Sabatino’s Pizzeria, Maplewood, NJ by Ken Stanek/studionumbernine
“I usually draw in pen for an hour or so,” said Stanek, regarding the business portraits. “I’m not trying to pose anything. I just go there and document what’s happening. It’s a lot of shop owners, obviously — which I love. I love getting people in there.” Stanek said he is drawn to small business owners and their work because “I like passion projects.”
“They take all their time to commit themselves to this life because they love it. They’re gonna make it work,” said Stanek.
Stanek is touched by how much his pieces resonate with local residents.
“It’s delightful to me when I’m set up at a market and people are paving through, and they say, ‘Oh, Sabatino’s!’ I love that we all have these sentimental attachments to places. It’s wonderful.”
“I’ve gotten to meet so many people by doing this. I’m friendly with all the business owners. I do thrive on it. It satisfies my introverted and extroverted tendencies at the same time to sit in the corner and draw for an hour.”
Mika Braakman at A Paper Hat by Ken Stanek/studionumbernine
One person that Stanek hasn’t sketched: himself.
“You know Zoe Berkovic?” he asks. “She’s doing a series of portraits of artists. And we talked about recreating the Norman Rockwell self portrait where he’s sort of leaning over the easel.”
“I like this idea a lot,” said Stanek. “Obviously it’s the back of my head, because what I’m doing is documenting the town. It’s really similar to Norman Rockwell.”
See more of Stanek’s work at studionumbernine.net.
Find out more about classes Stanek teaches/co-hosts at studionumbernine.net/classes-events. Stanek is also helping to coordinate somaaffordableart and will be co-chairing Studio Tour SOMA with Jenn Malone November 1-2, 2025.
Follow Stanek/studionumbernine on instagram @studionumbernine.
Classic Man, Maplewood, NJ. By Ken Stanek/studionumbernine
The Order, South Orange, NJ by Ken Stanek/studionumbernine
