stevenjsimmons

Yours truly at YARDS Project, July 2020

Greetings.  I added a new page recently entitled "COVID19 Creations", featuring all of the art that I have made since the lockdown began in Ohio, around mid-March.  One of these pieces, "Flowsaic Translucent Wave", is currently on display in the "Art Made In The Shut Down" exhibit at YARDS gallery in Cleveland.  A few quick words about these pieces:

I made the Flowsaic Translucent Wave in my home studio in May.  When the lockdown started in March I began a stretch of making translucent hearts (approximately 20) using similar materials (wire, fiberglass, resin, acrylic and phosphorescent) as the wave piece.  I gifted most of the hearts to friends working in health care positions as a thank you for their bravery.  Two of these hearts were sold to friends at deep discounts for Mother’s Day gifts.  The largest heart that I made during this stretch, “World Heart”, hangs in my front window every night as a show of appreciation to health care workers that might be driving by.

After making so many hearts for others during lockdown, by early May I realized that I needed to make a piece just for me.  As a surf artist (among other things) the wave is a form I return to often.  When I finished this piece, I displayed it in my front window below the World Heart.  For many nights thereafter, I watched the sun set through these translucent pieces.  The shifting colors of the setting sun backlight the wave (and the heart) providing a dynamic evening display that resulted in many meditative moments of reflection and peace.  The light shining through my translucent works is a metaphor for the love and light that I wish to project to others.

You can view the images referenced above at this page:  https://www.stevenjsimmons.com/images/flowsaic-translucent-wave-at-sunset

So yeah, I have this thing with hearts.  This is a mashup of the hearts that I've made so far in 2019.  Most of these have found new homes already.  Creating and sharing hearts has become a fun early year tradition for me.  Peace and love!

Happy New Year friends!  I am happy to announce the formation of the Wavemaker Gallery.  This is a private gallery in my own home, in the same space formerly known as Studio Cray (which also used to be the name for this blog).   I now have a dedicated, atypical space for displaying my atypical works as I see fit.  I created a virtual gallery with the same name which you can visit online at any time by clicking here:  Wavemaker Gallery Online

Hours by appointment only.  Thanks to all for your support, have a great year!

Greetings.  I just completed my latest wave sculpture, "Freshy's Reef Break".  Like many of my recent works it is difficult to capture the essence of this piece with just one photo, so here's a 1 minute video with sound that I just posted to my videos page.  Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/VjnaDNGIwCs

At some point I told myself that this was the year to slow down, art-wise.  Despite my lofty expectations, I have had a super busy first half of 2018.  Here's a quick recap of what I've been up to since my last blog post in January, with a few pics below, as noted:

July 13 - August 18: 4 new works (pictured below) in the Parallax Exhibit at Summit Artspace, Akron

July: 2 steel and fiberglass butterfly collaboration pieces were part of the Man Of Steel/Jerry Schmidt and collaborators show at Beachwood CC Gallery in Beachwood

June-July: 1 new piece was part of the Size Matters Exhibit at Stella's Art Gallery in Mentor

June:  Reggie (my dog) and I were part of the "CLE Artists and their Dogs" article, June issue of CLE Dog Magazine  https://www.cledog.net/ 

May-June: My Translucent Wave was juried into the May Show at Lakeland CC Gallery (2d consecutive year for this show - see below)

April:  Met with fourth and fifth graders in Mr. Ascherman's "Surfing and Geology" class at the Lilian and Betty Ratner School, Beachwood to discuss my experience as a lake surfer and surf artist (see below)

March - April:  Six In Studio Exhibit at Cleveland West Art League, 78th St. Studios, Cleveland (see below)

February:   donated three heart pieces for an auction to benefit Nalu Adaptive Foundation

And of course there's the other stuff like my full time day job, a wedding party for my oldest daughter in May, creating new work in the studio, surfing, hiking and gardening ...etc.

Parallax Exhibit at Summit Artspace, Akron, Ohio

(through August 18, 2018)

Translucent Wave at The May Show, Lakeland CC, in May

Steel and Fiberglass Microshredder

at the Ratner School in April 

Cleveland West Art League, April




 

"Be like a lotus.  Let the beauty of your heart speak.  Be grateful to the mud, water, air and the light."  - Amrit Ray (from Nonviolence:  The Transforming Power)

Pictured above:  Four lotus flower sculptures by yours truly, three of which were created in January.

Lotus Blossom (work in progress)

Happy Holidays from Studio Cray!  This has been such an incredible year, hoping to finish a video of my 2017 highlights.  Stay tuned!