Art and money

It’s hard to keep your eyes off the blood on the walls. I’m talking about the work of Steve Somers, a graduate of both Milwaukee’s High School of the Arts and MIAD. He’s worked as a curator, exhibited at the now-defunct Luckystar Gallery, the Milwaukee Art Museum as part of several Cedar Block events, and most recently at the Acrylic Age Gallery in Berlin (Germany – not Wisconsin). We’re in his home discussing a few things – chiefly how he walks the line between making a living and making art.

Steve spends his days working commercially for clients like McDonald’s and Disney and spends his free time painting (as well as putting together a self-published book of his own work – Individuals in a Group – available later this year). I’d look out of touch if I didn’t ask the most obvious question – the one you can’t escape from these days: “Has the economy effected your work?”

Steve initially answers “No,” and then, quickly, “But I haven’t scheduled any shows this year.” Steve explains that he’s going to spend the time “working on bigger pieces; more epic works” and that he’s challenging himself and “concentrating on painting.”

No one could ever look at Steve’s work – chuck-full of festering wounds, contorted figures writhing in agony and bizarre plant life – and accuse him of playing to the consumer, but he echoes what I’ve heard from several area artists. Instead of following the retail trend to lower prices and produce smaller less expensive work artists have begun just get back to basics –  making art.

An upside to the current economic slump?  Well, there’s got to be a silver lining – right? Art made with the purest of intentions, bucking the decade long trend of art for commerce and returning to art for art’s sake, sounds 99.9% pure.

See Steve’s art: http://stevesomersart.com/