Today we’d like to introduce you to Steven Fisher.
Hi Steven, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
All I’ve ever really known or felt beckoned to do is create. It’s been a long and somewhat crooked path but a very necessary one that’s led me to where I am.
Who knows how it starts, really? I didn’t really look for it and I wouldn’t have known it if it hit me in the face, especially at 10-11 years old. What I do know, looking back, it was calling me before I knew how to, or was ready to, answer. While no kid likes to do classwork, school work, home work, writing essays or taking notes, I was on another level. It wasn’t that I couldn’t do the work or that I was bored, too smart or needed bigger challenges. I think I just needed different challenges. Something, or anything, that meant something to me. Creating and art are forms of escape, dealing with things you can’t put into words or simply creating things you like in a world that you don’t feel you fit into. All the doodling and drawing comic book superheroes would land me in hot water with teachers, but it also helped me feel like I had friends.
An aspect that was directly influenced by my focused doodling was my grades. I wasn’t failing, but was pretty close. Action was going to be needed to course correct. Conferences were setup between teachers and parents to discuss options and plans. At the same time, unbeknownst to me, the middle school art teacher Deanna Pfarr had seen my doodles and requested a meeting with my parents. Soon after that meeting with Ms. Pfarr and my parents, I found myself going to the Columbus College of Art and Design (CCAD) Saturday morning classes. I almost spoiled that experience, but it was salvaged and set me on a course that changed my life. This happened when I was navigating this creative drive while being surrounded by farms, farmers, homebuilders, corporate businesses, small businesses and factory career options. It could not have come at a better time. During this early discovery period, I did win a ribbon, in my age group, for a watercolor/gouache painting of Perseus slaying Medusa at the Ohio State Fair Youth Arts Exhibition. Looking back, it might have been the first time I felt like there might actually be something here to be more thoroughly explored.
Our high school had the benefit of a large automobile factory making its home in Marysville, Ohio. With the investment in the area came aid to the schools which meant a fully loaded art department at Marysville High School. In addition to the influx of supplies, I had a teacher, Mr Mark Kreis, who allowed me the freedom to discover and hone any talent that may be there, even if just simmering, He provided structure and critique when necessary, but also allowed me to figure it out on my own. He supported my exploration of mediums to understand a medium, and connection for what felt right to me. Mr Kreis pushed me to improve and get a portfolio together for the next stage, perhaps art school.
College art experience…in short:
Columbus College of Art and Design: Yep, back here. I attended CCAD part-time for a year. At that time, it was battling for top art school in the country along with Parsons and Pratt. But, being expensive (but great foundation experience) and I was starting to figure where I wanted to go with my creative side, and where I didn’t… I left CCAD.
I attended Bowling Green State University (1989-1993). My dad went to BGSU, so it seemed natural to give it a go. Long story short: Bob Mazur. Bob Mazur changed my life. Bob didn’t teach me *how* to paint. He was always teaching how to live, be aware, explore, discover and play. Everything isn’t art, but you get close with playing, experimenting and discovering. After, he would encourage you to look back and those discoveries and analyze how they make you feel, which ones make you feel the most and why ones are more successful than others.
After college there was a certain variety in my employment but all of them were in the creative realm. I mean, they had to be, right? My first job was as a PrePress artist and Press operator for a large format printing company. I was there for about 3 years. Later, I was a graphic designer, then creative art director at the nation’s top condo renovation company.
In 1999 I decided to pursue my passion for cooking. I did “stage” (pronounced “stahzh” which is an unpaid internship or trial period where a cook works in another chef’s kitchen to learn new techniques and gain experience) work all around the city of Chicago then obtained my first real kitchen job at a steakhouse in the west loop area. I’ve also cooked in the kitchens of The James Beard House, restaurants in Dublin and Shanagarry, Cork, Ireland, and other restaurants in Chicago, Cincinnati and Columbus, OH.
Around 2007, I felt the need to get back into graphic design and began working at a device company for a while as a marketing/graphics manager. In 2011 I returned to school to get my MFA in Advertising and graduated in December of 2013. While I was attending school, I also working for an outstanding boutique advertising agency in Charlotte, NC.
In late 2013, back in Marysville, OH, I started my own business doing graphic design and marketing with a desire to help local businesses in the Marysville, Union County and central Ohio area. I continued to paint, draw and create when I could make time. In 2017/2018 I decided to flip the script and instead of doing 90% graphic design work and 10% making art I went to 98% making art and 2% picking and choosing what design work I wanted to do. Finally in 2018 I decided to put the full petal down on making something happen with the art like I’ve always wanted to do
I have had a handful of shows and my work can be found in area businesses from time to time. Check my website for the upcoming where and when. I’ve had central Ohio gallery representation. I have work in the Hilton Downtown, Columbus, OH, and The Big Lots Behavioral Health Pavilion at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
In my past work I was preoccupied with making a connection with people and having my work say something to them. Currently, I am exploring more zen, buddhist ideas of “First Thought, Best Thought” and exploring more spontaneous work without having intention in the work or having intentions of making people see what I want them to see instead of them seeing what they want to see.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Smooth road? Yes and no. It is what we make to be. It’s too easy to say it’s rough and not so easy to tell yourself it is the road you’re on. Be on the road and embrace it. Of course, it’s easier to say that now at 55 than it would’ve been in my 30’s.
With that said, there are struggles. An obstacle, even from high school, has been trying to be an abstract artist in area where people don’t think being an artist is work or a profession. Add to that, not being an artist who is drawing or painting what is already in front of us like wildlife, still life or landscapes, but on a journey to create what isn’t already here. To bring something new and different into the world is a struggle too.
I’m not naive, tangible struggles are sales. Sales mean a lot to me. Not in terms of making money. But in terms that it means so much more than words can say that someone wants to live with something I’ve made so much that they buy it. It blows my mind and I’m grateful for each sale. Sales also mean I get to buy more supplies to keep creating. When sales aren’t happening, it’s a struggle and can be stressful.
Unfortunately, for artists, slow sales can also lead to a lot of self-doubt. Being sold out, not having any sales or not having/having a huge social media following has zero bearing on the quality or the accuracy of truth in our work. And we’re being taught through social media that ‘Likes’, “Engagement’, and ‘Followers’ is a measuring stick of worth. But – if we’re honest in the making of our work and making the best work we can – that’s what makes it successful. That’s it. It isn’t the sales that make the artwork or the artist successful…. and THAT is the struggle a lot of artists have. Every day.
Other struggles have been have bad shows where no one shows up to the opening or the meet-and-greet-the-artist receptions. That’s a jagged pill to swallow and I’ve had it happen more than a few times. It can make you doubt everything you’re doing. But when you remember ‘why’ you’re doing it, it can help you to get past it.
There are struggles in feeling seen. As much as I tell myself, and believe, that the artist’s job is simple: 1) create the best work we can, 2) share that work and 3) get back to making more work. It can be tough in the social media world that tells you if you’re being seen or if you’re not. Doubt is a daily struggle, but you can get passed it by DOING THE WORK.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Currently I am an abstract artist working in acrylic paint. Substrates can be canvas, paper, wood, lamps, guitars, tissue box covers and whatever is calling me. Nothing is off limits to paint or create on. In many ways, I’ve become know for my round paintings that take on a very floral shapes to get lost in. I call them Hunter S Thompson meets Tim Burton meets Dr Seuss. Those closer to me know me for my diversity in styles, varieties in applications and subject matter.
I’m proud of my diversity in what I make. I don’t stick to one particular style, even ones that have proven financially more successful. I think if artists are truly creative, living a creative life and linked into the energy flow, they should open to creating what is coming to them to make. Whatever it is. I’m proud of the fact I can go from making an illustration with social commentary to a large abstract piece at whatever whim the energies direct me. I love having anywhere from 3 to 15 pieces going on at the same time, as a series or different. I feel that’s being in tune with creative energies that flow around us and what the muses bring our way.
I think diversity sets me apart but other than that, I’m not concerned about others’ opinions. I’m trying to make the best work I can each day and then make a different, for better or worse, honest piece than I did the day before. Growth and evolution is the key for me, not revolution, not comparison or setting myself apart from other artists.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
Two things here: there’s the “Art Market” and the “Art World”.
The Art Market is the *Auction House* existence. Where multimillionaires, billionaires and the auction houses and critics try to dictate how much art is worth, what is art, what isn’t art, what you should and shouldn’t like. The Art Market trends are already showing themselves. Less and less people with money to spend in the Art Market world are spending it there. They are looking at galleries and other venues that display art as well as visiting studios to meet the artists and purchase paintings they actually like from lesser know artists at a fraction of the price of the auction house or global gallery. I think and hope this trend will continue for independent artists and smaller, mid-size galleries.
The Art World is where the rest of us working artists reside. I hope a shift or a trend that becomes the norm is for artists to become more confident to share their work, to be able to talk about it and to keep making it and putting it out there for people to find. I hope artists become more confident to stick to what they want to create and worry less about whether or not someone will like it. I also hope that artists can become better marketers of their work.
Pricing:
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Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.FisherArtworks.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fisherartworks
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SFisherArtworks
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cre8ivedifferences
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@fisherartworks
