Spraygraphic Interview with Artist Rodger Stevens

By Spraygraphic | March 3, 2008

Spraygraphic Interview with Rodger Stevens

SG: Please tell us about yourself?

RS: I was born in Brooklyn; went to some lovely schools; got a degree in economics; studied art; married an artist and had two children. Now I’m an artist and I adore my wife and kids.

SG: Where do you currently live and work?

RS: In a classic six in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

SG: What mediums do you work with?

RS: I work almost exclusively with wire but I wouldn’t kick wood, cardboard or string out of my studio.

SG: Describe your working process when creating a new work.

RS: I think about the thing before falling asleep; draw all about it on the subway; then the work becomes visible in my mind and I try to make it.

SG: What kind of things do you do when you get blocked or find it hard to create something?

RS: There are many things that bridle my ability to work: the demands of being a father for example, but being creatively blocked has so far not been one of them.

SG: Where are you currently finding your inspiration?

RS: Everywhere really. I think just about everything I look at, everything, plays a role in what comes out.

SG: How did you become a freelance artist/designer for companies such as MTV, Tiffanys & Co, Federal Reserve Bank, etc….

RS: Constant hustling; a determination not to be intimidated; a willingness to try anything; and an acceptance of rejection, of which there was/is plenty.

SG: What kind of deadlines do you work with when producing this kind of work?

RS: Deadlines vary a great deal. Some clients, the commercially-oriented ones generally, need work yesterday. Others, private individuals mostly, can happily wait for months.

SG: Do the companies come back to you and say “change this” or “change that?”

RS: I’ve had to rework sculptures, one was perceived by a client to be too phallic (not phallic, mind you, but too phallic), but it’s rare.

SG: How much are you willing to change? Is there some kind of negotiation process you go through?

RS: I want to deliver what I’ve promised and I like clients to be happy. They are the ones who will live with the work. But it’s a matter of degree.

SG: In what ways has your teaching experience at Parsons influence and inform your own work?

RS: I haven’t seen any direct influence yet, but it takes time for me to perceive just what effect an experience has had on my work.

SG: Where has your work been seen?

RS: Galleries, stores, in New York, California, and elsewhere. On occasion a magazine will feature my work or a high profile client will commission a piece and that will garner some attention.

SG: Where will it be seen next?

RS: I have a few shows in Williamsburg, Brooklyn coming up this month and next. Two spaces in lower Manhattan (Karkula and Abingdon 12) are showing my work right now.

SG: What is your dream art assignment?

RS: The details of that gig would be too tedious to detail and too boring to read but I can say, at least, that it involves the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a long all-expense-paid stay in a Spanish city.

SG: What is your favorite color?

RS: Caramel.

SG: Who is your favorite artist? And Why?

RS: It’s terribly cliche, I know, but I have to say Picasso just because he worked like a motherfucker and so much of it turned out well.

SG: What book/magazine are you reading this week?

RS: The New Yorker, same as every week.

SG: Ever do a self portrait? Where is it now?

RS: I turn them out on a pretty regular basis; they’re all over the place, but you’d never know they were self portraits by looking at them.

SG: Where is your favorite place to hang out?

RS: It’s a toss up between the beach and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

SG: Any final words of advice?

RS: Try not to bullshit yourself.

ART: 1) Epitome, 2) tunnel, 3) Bliss and Conflict #25, 4) Bliss and Conflict #27, 5) Sangfroid 2, 6) Incurable idea, 7) drops, Downpour, 9) unshakable, 10) Unshakable #26