Today we’d like to introduce you to Steven Carlyle Moore.
Hi Steven Carlyle, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I have been making art since I can remember. I could draw before I could talk. The very act of pushing a pencil or a paintbrush forward is literally the path I have carved for myself. Art is the only thing I’m good at and the only I’ve ever seen myself doing. It’s like breathing. As a kid, I didn’t see it as “making art,” it was more of a primordial need to express the senses and reflect on the emotions of my inner world. I grew up in the Frogtown neighborhood of St. Paul, Minnesota–an urban neighborhood that has influenced me and my work my whole life.
As I got older, I craved more knowledge and turned to studying art at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and the University of Minnesota. While I have developed more tools, skills, and knowledge as an adult, I still want to express my inner world and emotions when I create new visual work. It’s important to me to be able to continue to tap into the creative urge and sincerity I’ve experienced since my childhood. Curiosity keeps the fire burning. As a full-time artist for over 25 years, I feel like I’m always learning new things about myself, my creative process, and my art.
As the artist, Paul Strand said, “The artist’s world is limitless. It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep.” I see myself as a contemporary expressionist painter, with a limitless world at my doorstep. I rely on my intuition and imagination to create visual work that tells an expressive, color-filled, and authentic story—sometimes reinterpreting or reimagining everyday objects and figures—sometimes creating something totally new. At first, my work may seem whimsical, but if you linger, you may see deeper themes emerge in a unique visual world that transports you somewhere you haven’t been before. By defamiliarizing the familiar, I create realities that are funny, or dark, or strange in hopes of engaging the viewer in a new way.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
As someone who has possessed a strong drive to create from an early age, I can definitely say it has not been a smooth road. My working-class family wasn’t experienced with the type of life a creative person could have. They didn’t value art as a career and actively discouraged me from pursuing an education or a career in art when I was a young person. Even though I was placed in a gifted program, when my teachers suggested I get involved in art classes outside of school, my parents felt I would just get “a big head” by taking extra classes. I wasn’t allowed to seek extracurricular courses or get money for paint or art supplies. Being labeled “gifted” began to feel more like a curse than a blessing and as a kid, I didn’t really know how to deal with that kind of conflict. Fortunately, I had one uncle who believed in something different and bought me paints and art supplies on the side. Although when I brought them home, my mother forced me to give them away to my siblings for craft projects because she didn’t want me to have something my siblings didn’t. Despite this discouragement, my thirst to learn and create was deep. I drew on envelopes, on grease-stained papers, napkins–whatever I could get my hands on. Until I graduated and moved out and could buy my own art supplies, creating with pencil and whatever paper was around is what I had to work with.
The near-constant discouragement from my family made a big impact on me as a young adult. I wanted to go to college to study art and my family staged an intervention, claiming college was a waste of money and art was a pointless pursuit. This took a huge toll on my confidence and my emotions. It was exhausting battling them and I couldn’t just go to college without the support of my family. So, I put the idea of being a professional artist aside. It was some time before I felt confident enough to pursue being a full-time artist again.
But, creating art is like breathing for me. It is something I was born to do and while my parents were discouraging my uncle was fiercely encouraging and urged me not to let the fire die. He isn’t around anymore, but his belief in me and my own drive led me to commit to living the life of a full-time artist.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a contemporary expressionist visual artist. To be an expressionist means to me that you aren’t creating something that is perfectly representational, rather you’re using art to express yourself, your thoughts, and emotions. Expressing through art is what it means to be free. Free of inhibitions, free of conventional ideas of representation, free of expectations. It is freedom of movement through space and time and revealing itself on canvas, paper, or in sculpture. I consider a work successful when it provokes a response in the viewer. Painting is in dialogue with the audience. The viewer’s interpretation might have nothing to do with what I was feeling or trying to express when creating, but if they are moved in any way by the piece, that is the goal.
I primarily paint using acrylics (sometimes oils), and am in love with color. I am most known for painting with vibrant, often unmixed colors. My work could be described as bright, sometimes childlike, and sometimes dark in subject matter. I’ve painted many successful series that include recognizable elements such ice cream trucks or a series I created using Big Wheels that evoked moments of movement and childhood play. On a completely different front, I have many pieces of work where figures derive straight from my imagination, for example, a recent series I did is called “Mind Grope,” where a figure reaches into his own eyes to connect with his brain. It can be seen as symbolic of struggles with mental health, trying to understand yourself, or just a fun way to depict a weird figure.
What sets any artist apart from others is staying true to who you are. Ultimately, the artist needs to create in their own voice and follow their own creative impulses.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
The quality most important to my success is embracing my own individuality. I have always been called “weird.” I shunned that in the past, but I embrace it now. I allow myself to be sensitive to the world–to be curious–and to be open.
Pricing:
- Nobody Chairs, acrylic on canvas 30″ x 30″ $1800 (2022)
- Adrenaline Junkie, acrylic on canvas 30″ x 30″ $1800 (2016)
- Pink Shoe at Night, acrylic on canvas 16″x 20″ $800 (2021)
- Weekly Specials, acrylic on canvas 16″ x 20″ $700 (2022)
- Sack of Deer, acrylic on canvas 30″ x 30″ $1800 (2021)
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ifeellikesteve.com
- Instagram: @ifeellikesteve
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ifeellikesteve
Image Credits
Steven Carlyle Moore (paintings)
Monica Wittstock (artist portrait)
