“EVERYBODY’S A WINNER IN A CITY OF LOSERS”
- Paul Shlach, owner of Now That’s Class
That quote always hits a soft spot (we keep it on our refrigerator)…and, I must admit – I do feel like a “winner” in Cleveland…maybe that’s why I moved here. Stephe DK touched upon that concept in the interview – it’s easy to feel good, when so many are worse off.
Anyways…Stephe DK’s the classic underdog. A character of Pekarian proportions…his attitude is so Cleveland, you could almost use him as a definition of a Clevelander – self-effacing, highly skeptical of everything and anything that looks promising, brashly opinionated, and realistic about the limitations life has piled onto the majority of us.
Despite the lack of mainstream acceptance or success of his creative talents, he keeps at it, doing things the only way he could do them – eccentrically, intelligently, and highly individual [CONVENTIONS ARE FOR SALESMEN AND DOCTORS].
The best example would be his “Jilted Again” series – some 15 or so paintings of the same exact scenario of him getting dumped by women – over and over and over again…it’s an epic display of hilarious, jaded, tongue-in-cheek self-loathing and idiosyncratic obsession, which kind of had me awe-struck in its extent, focus and dedication…going the extra mile to creatively relay an experience and communicate an idea in the most effective manner – by relentless overkill.
We had the pleasure to hang out with Stephe (pronounced Steve) DK at his house, before heading over to Bela Dubby for one of their Wednesday experimental music nights (always highly recommended), where he threw down a killer improv jazz/noise set with sax virtuoso, Jack Smiley…yeah, Mr. DK also plays one of the meanest guitars in Cleveland.
You can find more of Stephe DK’s work at myspace.com/stephedk
Based on everyday experience, do you believe Cleveland is the city of Rock and Roll, or is it the city of Thug Rap?
I don’t think Cleveland’s even a city. Cleveland’s been steadily going out of business since about 1950 or so. And now that the overall American economy has ended, we’re currently living in “P.E.”, the post-economy era, in which America is no longer the only economic power.
How do you feel about the Cleveland art scene, and where you fit into it?
There isn’t one, and I’m not part of it. There might be a music scene, but there’s definitely not an art scene. It’s a bunch of random people who just do what they do. It’s not like Doug Utter, Amy Casey and I are playing poker on a Monday night. It’s a bunch of isolated crazy people doing whatever the hell they do. There isn’t a scene. It’s not like, when I leave my house, people are like – “hey Steve man, you want to do a drawing for this that or the other?” That doesn’t happen. It’s horrible. People here are mean, they’re not that open. But I really don’t know if I could actually live anywhere else. I used to be like – “I gotta get out of Cleveland, I gotta get out of Cleveland”. But more recently – I realize that I might just have to live here, because I’ve gotten so used to it – depressed people everywhere. A lot of people here are way worse off than me!
[REFERENCING THE PAINTING ABOVE] You got something against Obama?
No, actually I voted for Obama. The name of this painting is “Jena sang strange fruit”. It’s in reference to Obama running for president in 2008 with a slogan about change, and earlier in the year in Jena, Alabama – there we’re these racially motivated instances with the nooses.
Yeah, the white tree…
It was a big deal. I’m a white guy, so I don’t have any deep personal connection to these issues, but it struck me as – Oh, 2008 is the year of change – REALLY? This shit is still happening. Racism is still really big in America. So, I wanted to say that, but also wanted to back it up with the articles I put in the background of the piece, which deal with the civil rights struggle.
So again, the title – “Jena sang strange fruit” alludes to the town of Jena, Alabama – personified as a woman…and “strange fruit” pertains to a Billy Holliday song about lynching.
Yeah, she had some bad experiences in the South…and who’s the Angela referenced to?
That’s Angela Davis. She was a famous feminist Black Panther. She wrote a lot of books in the early 70’s – a Black Power feminist activist – a very strong and unusual person, and definitely somebody that any intelligent, well-read black person would probably know of.
I also have Jackie Robinson in there – The first black guy allowed to play with the White People! You know, including Black milestones in American history.
It looks pretty dirty – and gritty.
Well…artistically, I’m influenced by people like Rauchenberg, Jasper Johns, and De Cherico…I’m interested in a “painterly” quality…being physical with the medium, I like that grittiness…making things visceral. As an afterthought, I put that red, gold and green in there to give it a little feeling of Africa.
I tried to make it dirty. There’s a lot of wax in there to give it texture and make it look like tar. I think it’s hard for people like us to really understand the terror involved. I mean, I grew up in the suburbs in a middle class family – I’ve never experienced any terror like a lynching, or the threat of it…living in a community where you fear for your life. So I wanted to put some ugliness in there, to try to express some pain…in whatever little way I can.
How about background stuff…ever go to school?
I went to CIA for two years, I stopped going – basically because of the cost…I did really like going there, I learned a lot. But I was older, I started going to college when I was 22, so I felt a little weird – Art school has a lot of cliques in its environment, a lot of affluent young people…I felt like a fish out of water. I tried really hard and thought it was cool – I’m not being pessimistic about it, it was just hard for me. So I finished my degree at CSU, where my focus was painting. I also intended to get a degree where I could teach art education, and I may still do that.
