Although trying to flush my mother's jewelry box down the toilet, when first learning to walk, might not strike you as the marker of a curious mind, the fact that I did it several times may tell a different story!
This learning adventure was a preamble to many more focused attempts at wrangling understanding from a world of constraints, and it was certainly NOT the messiest.
I loved taking things apart at a young age, and by seventh grade my brother and I were bringing tools (covertly, in our backpacks) to our small Southern California school...just in case we stumbled upon something good to dismantle. Nothing was safe.
By the time I was 15 in 1980, I had begun to actually put things back together. I had classroom experience with glass blowing, ceramics, copper enameling, auto mechanics and the newly arrived personal computer. This was followed by deep dives into jewelry fabrication, casting, silversmithing, carving and later, large scale sculpture. Much of this activity unfolded over many years while I worked to co-raise four sons, but it was never far beneath the cloud of love & commotion.
As an artist today, I see it as my job to reveal something previously unknown to the participant (viewer doesn't adequately describe it). I never want my art to sit idly by. It must engage, incite, entreat, captivate, solicit or encourage. My largest works are created to literally GET IN or GET ON (see-saw video), and at their best, transport you to a new perspective. My smallest works are centered around identity or specific meanings for the customer. In short, I want to instill the same curiosity about the world for others, as I have when creating the pieces themselves.
I live on a working ranch near Petaluma,CA, a town of 59k in Sonoma County, 50 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge. The ocean breeze occasionally makes it's way past the cattle smells that often stand sentinel throughout this valley, but there are no guarantees.
The only guarantee is that most days you'll find me in my studio creating something new, while intermittently taking in the long view of Two Rock Valley, where my home sits. This is rarely accompanied by anyone trying to flush my precious belongings down the toilet, but it does occasionally cross my mind.
~ Stephen