Steven B. Smith (poet)
Encyclopedia
Steven B. Smith is an underground art
ist and poet
from Cleveland, Ohio
. He published the cult underground classic ArtCrimes
, a zine influenced by the beats. Smith's art and poetry uses cultural themes as found objects with a Dadaist influence.
His life is pockmarked with colorful episodes such as stealing cars when he was thirteen, getting kicked out of the U.S. Naval Academy, armed robbery, and prison.
. He stole thirteen cars when he was thirteen.
In 1968 Smith was one of thirteen middies ousted by the Naval Academy for smoking pot. He haggled a deal with the government upon discharge; they agreed to pay for his education. He went on to receive a bachelor's degree in English and philosophy with a 3.8 GPA from Loyola College in Maryland
.
Smith married into an East Coast blue-blood
family in 1969. In 1970, he was arrested for armed robbery. http://agentofchaos.com/prisonbreak.html Smith lived in Baltimore and other cities before coming to Cleveland in 1977 in pursuit of another man's wife. She then divorced her husband and decided to marry someone other than Smith.
Smith's art uses iconic baubles with the effect of cheapening and attacking cultural themes. The work has been characterized as "difficult and uncompromising," and "repellent and grotesque," with roots from the dadaist collages of Schwitters
and Rauschenberg.
Materials used include rusted wire, shattered glass, obscene imagery, dead mice, the artificial leg of a dead drug dealer and sometimes other people's art. His work is washed in blue "corrosion," a mix of matte medium
, copper powder, and salt. Another reviewer says Smith's use of oxidized copper makes his works appear to be fetched from the bottom of the sea.
Smith uses cultural themes as found objects. "I deal in symbolic juxtapositions of the odd and unwanted," Smith says. "My materials consist of cultural castoffs, sociological implications and the refuse known as suburban thought. My goals are simple; erase your labels; learn to look about ... Learn to see dead frog and rust and thus re-see yourself." He says, "My art is a collaboration with the pieces."
After the death of his brother Cat (Vincent Smith), Smith started exhibiting his brother's remains at his shows, leaving some of the ashes behind after each exhibit.
snapshots, nude photos of himself in compromising positions with the American flag. This piece won the "most outrageous" award at the show.
Next, three pieces of his art were censored from a show at Tri-C West. Smith agreed to the removal as long as a "censored" notice was put on the wall in place of the missing art. The opening night poetry reading was reassigned to a remote conference room. During the reading Smith discovered that Tri-C neglected to post the notes. He wrote "CENSORED" on the wall with a ball point pen. Poet Daniel Thompson
decided to read in the original gallery, and mouthed the words to his poem silently as a Tri-C co-director sanded the words off the wall.
and his art. He frequently contracted with BP
. Previous occupations include sailor, milk man, life insurance salesman, avant garde theater manager, newspaper film and music critic, woman's shoe salesmen, prison cook, carnival laborer, and church janitor. He's also worked at Bethlehem Steel
.
Smith's "resume" was published in an article from 2000:
in Cleveland in 1981. Artists, musicians and renegades moved there to revel in Cleveland's industrial beauty. The warehouse district was a haven.
Smith and Wilcox had an "Art Behind Bars" installation in the district with mannequins, Mickey Mouse, and neon tube calliope.
Smith's brother "Cat" moved into the warehouse with him. Cat Smith's collages were dead ringers for Schwitters'.
Smith and Cat's spot in the warehouse became a gathering spot for other artists in the building, and scene, including S. Judson Wilcox, Melissa Jay Craig (AKA "Field Marshal May Midwest"), Jeff Chiplis, Laszlo Gyorki, Ken Nevadomi, Randy Rigutto, Jay Clements, and Beth Wolfe. Guests were offered keepsakes of miniature toy soldiers, babies in plastic bubbles, or poetry.
SPACES Gallery was located on the first floor, making the warehouse the de facto
epicenter of creative activity.
Cat was a troubled man who eventually committed suicide. After he died, Smith heard a beeping in his studio. He couldn't figure out where the beeping came from, and thought it was the soul of his dead brother. He then found a worn-out smoke detector at the bottom of a huge pile in his studio.
In another installation with Wilcox, Smith used a bag of his dead brother's ashes. He claimed to have a pact with Cat. The first to die would be included in an exhibition of the other's work. In one of the exhibitions at SPACES gallery, Smith put Cat's ashes on a pedestal. The bag was punctured by a friend and ashes spilled onto the pedestal and the floor.
.") Smith used his art and poetry to make political statements, and he also participated in a couple legendary "regional art terrorist" raids in the Flats.
Starting in 1986, Smith published the Cleveland cult underground publication
ArtCrimes
, a zine full of images and poems which also shared his disrespect for authority. ArtCrimes took on the spirit of Smith's journals, like a sketchbook that's been passed around to dozens of different artists. The zine was influenced by the beats
, and was consistent with the style of publications from the days of Kerouac, Corso
, and Ginsberg
.
Contributors included everyone from Bukowski
and Micheline
to people's pets. Ohio poets and artists included the likes of Daniel Thompson
, Maj Ragain, Amy Bracken Sparks, Ben Gulyas, Chris Franke, Harvey Pekar
, Gary Dumm
, Masumi Hayashi
and Ken Nevadomi. One reviewer postulated that ArtCrimes was the most significant publication of the Cleveland underground art scene in recent history.
, in the typical pattern where artists move into undesirable but inexpensive neighborhoods, fixing up old buildings in which to live and work.
Shortly after Smith's move to Tremont, Cat committed suicide. Pappy Smith died shortly after, and Mother Dwarf (Florence E. Smith) left Las Vegas to come to live with Smith. Mother Dwarf began her art career producing collages for ArtCrimes
. Smith and his mother's life together became a mother-son artistic collaboration.
Smith nearly died in 1991 from alcohol, and has been sober since then. One notable drunken episode was after an art auction. He'd bid loudly on every piece offered. He took a walk home with Mother Dwarf. He passed a fence of barking dogs, and started to howl "in communion." He leaned up over the dogs and they bit his scalp. The next day, Smith asked Mother Dwarf why he was covered in blood. "You mean..." she said, "You don't remember the dogs?"
In 2005 Smith's life hit a series of highs and lows. His mother died, he fell in love, he retired, and then discovered he had throat cancer. He published the final issue of ArtCrimes
in 2006.
Smith is a documentarian. His journals are not the only documentation of his life. He continues with his 2500-page website agentofchaos.com.
Smith married poet Lady K in 2006. They began their relationship shortly after the death of Mother Dwarf in 2005. In 2006 Smith and his wife sold their home, gave away all of their possessions, and moved to Europe.
Underground art
Underground art, as with underground music and underground film, is a term that seeks to describe art forms that are aloof to the mainstream art world, are illegal, taboo, unconventional, rebellious or revolutionary...
ist and poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
from Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
. He published the cult underground classic ArtCrimes
ArtCrimes
ArtCrimes was a Cleveland cult underground publication published by Steven B. Smith. The zine was influenced by the beats, and was consistent with the style of publications from the days of Kerouac, Corso, and Ginsberg....
, a zine influenced by the beats. Smith's art and poetry uses cultural themes as found objects with a Dadaist influence.
His life is pockmarked with colorful episodes such as stealing cars when he was thirteen, getting kicked out of the U.S. Naval Academy, armed robbery, and prison.
Early years
Smith was born in Wallace, Idaho, to Pappy Smith and Florence E. "Mother Dwarf" Smith. He was raised in Paradise Prairie, twenty miles outside of Spokane, WashingtonSpokane, Washington
Spokane is a city located in the Northwestern United States in the state of Washington. It is the largest city of Spokane County of which it is also the county seat, and the metropolitan center of the Inland Northwest region...
. He stole thirteen cars when he was thirteen.
In 1968 Smith was one of thirteen middies ousted by the Naval Academy for smoking pot. He haggled a deal with the government upon discharge; they agreed to pay for his education. He went on to receive a bachelor's degree in English and philosophy with a 3.8 GPA from Loyola College in Maryland
Loyola College in Maryland
Loyola University Maryland is a Roman Catholic, Jesuit private university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Established as Loyola College in Maryland by John Early and eight other members of the Society of Jesus in 1852, it is one of 28 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges...
.
Smith married into an East Coast blue-blood
Nobility
Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...
family in 1969. In 1970, he was arrested for armed robbery. http://agentofchaos.com/prisonbreak.html Smith lived in Baltimore and other cities before coming to Cleveland in 1977 in pursuit of another man's wife. She then divorced her husband and decided to marry someone other than Smith.
Art
Smith's art assemblages started when one day, instead of painting a key on a canvas, he picked it up and pasted it onto the canvas.Smith's art uses iconic baubles with the effect of cheapening and attacking cultural themes. The work has been characterized as "difficult and uncompromising," and "repellent and grotesque," with roots from the dadaist collages of Schwitters
Kurt Schwitters
Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters was a German painter who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including Dada, Constructivism, Surrealism, poetry, sound, painting, sculpture, graphic design, typography and what came to be known as...
and Rauschenberg.
Materials used include rusted wire, shattered glass, obscene imagery, dead mice, the artificial leg of a dead drug dealer and sometimes other people's art. His work is washed in blue "corrosion," a mix of matte medium
Liquitex
Liquitex is a registred trademark for a brand of acrylic paints named using a portmanteau of the words "liquid" and "texture". The first water-based acrylic paint launched in 1955 by the company under this brand name was the first acrylic gesso, and colored liquid acrylic paints came one year later...
, copper powder, and salt. Another reviewer says Smith's use of oxidized copper makes his works appear to be fetched from the bottom of the sea.
Smith uses cultural themes as found objects. "I deal in symbolic juxtapositions of the odd and unwanted," Smith says. "My materials consist of cultural castoffs, sociological implications and the refuse known as suburban thought. My goals are simple; erase your labels; learn to look about ... Learn to see dead frog and rust and thus re-see yourself." He says, "My art is a collaboration with the pieces."
After the death of his brother Cat (Vincent Smith), Smith started exhibiting his brother's remains at his shows, leaving some of the ashes behind after each exhibit.
Notoriety
Smith first gained notoriety with a piece — American Ego — in the People's Art Show at CSU. His piece was a four-by-three grid of PolaroidInstant film
Instant film is a type of photographic film first introduced by Polaroid that is designed to be used in an instant camera...
snapshots, nude photos of himself in compromising positions with the American flag. This piece won the "most outrageous" award at the show.
Next, three pieces of his art were censored from a show at Tri-C West. Smith agreed to the removal as long as a "censored" notice was put on the wall in place of the missing art. The opening night poetry reading was reassigned to a remote conference room. During the reading Smith discovered that Tri-C neglected to post the notes. He wrote "CENSORED" on the wall with a ball point pen. Poet Daniel Thompson
Daniel Thompson (poet)
Daniel Thompson was a Cleveland poet, civil rights activist and advocate for the homeless. Thompson became the first Poet Laureate for Cuyahoga County, Ohio.-Work:...
decided to read in the original gallery, and mouthed the words to his poem silently as a Tri-C co-director sanded the words off the wall.
Work
Smith worked longest as a computer programmer, which helped support ArtCrimesArtCrimes
ArtCrimes was a Cleveland cult underground publication published by Steven B. Smith. The zine was influenced by the beats, and was consistent with the style of publications from the days of Kerouac, Corso, and Ginsberg....
and his art. He frequently contracted with BP
BP
BP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...
. Previous occupations include sailor, milk man, life insurance salesman, avant garde theater manager, newspaper film and music critic, woman's shoe salesmen, prison cook, carnival laborer, and church janitor. He's also worked at Bethlehem Steel
Bethlehem Steel
The Bethlehem Steel Corporation , based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was once the second-largest steel producer in the United States, after Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based U.S. Steel. After a decline in the U.S...
.
Smith's "resume" was published in an article from 2000:
- 1950s
- farm boy
- cow milker
- chicken/rabbit/hog waste remover
- hod carrier
- 1960s
- paper boy
- car thief
- electronics technician
- poet
- USNA midshipman
- artist
- husband
- 1970s
- chemist
- prison cook
- bankrupt
- avant-garde theatre manager
- newspaper film/music critic
- women's shoe salesman
- adulterer
- divorced
Cleveland Warehouse District
Smith and his friend and frequent collaborator S. Judson Wilcox were two early "urban pioneers": artists who settled the Warehouse DistrictThe Warehouse District
The Warehouse District is a nationally recognized historic district located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. It is roughly bound by Front Avenue, Superior Avenue, West 3rd Street, and West 10th Street....
in Cleveland in 1981. Artists, musicians and renegades moved there to revel in Cleveland's industrial beauty. The warehouse district was a haven.
Smith and Wilcox had an "Art Behind Bars" installation in the district with mannequins, Mickey Mouse, and neon tube calliope.
Smith's brother "Cat" moved into the warehouse with him. Cat Smith's collages were dead ringers for Schwitters'.
Smith and Cat's spot in the warehouse became a gathering spot for other artists in the building, and scene, including S. Judson Wilcox, Melissa Jay Craig (AKA "Field Marshal May Midwest"), Jeff Chiplis, Laszlo Gyorki, Ken Nevadomi, Randy Rigutto, Jay Clements, and Beth Wolfe. Guests were offered keepsakes of miniature toy soldiers, babies in plastic bubbles, or poetry.
SPACES Gallery was located on the first floor, making the warehouse the de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
epicenter of creative activity.
Cat was a troubled man who eventually committed suicide. After he died, Smith heard a beeping in his studio. He couldn't figure out where the beeping came from, and thought it was the soul of his dead brother. He then found a worn-out smoke detector at the bottom of a huge pile in his studio.
In another installation with Wilcox, Smith used a bag of his dead brother's ashes. He claimed to have a pact with Cat. The first to die would be included in an exhibition of the other's work. In one of the exhibitions at SPACES gallery, Smith put Cat's ashes on a pedestal. The bag was punctured by a friend and ashes spilled onto the pedestal and the floor.
ArtCrimes
Before making visual art, Smith crafted unique journals into which he'd juxtapose images and poetry and journal entries. Smith wrote clever, punning poetry and read it all over town. (His poetry is described as "a stream-of-consciousness assault on reason and order" and "a cross between Dada and Jack KerouacJack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
.") Smith used his art and poetry to make political statements, and he also participated in a couple legendary "regional art terrorist" raids in the Flats.
Starting in 1986, Smith published the Cleveland cult underground publication
Underground art
Underground art, as with underground music and underground film, is a term that seeks to describe art forms that are aloof to the mainstream art world, are illegal, taboo, unconventional, rebellious or revolutionary...
ArtCrimes
ArtCrimes
ArtCrimes was a Cleveland cult underground publication published by Steven B. Smith. The zine was influenced by the beats, and was consistent with the style of publications from the days of Kerouac, Corso, and Ginsberg....
, a zine full of images and poems which also shared his disrespect for authority. ArtCrimes took on the spirit of Smith's journals, like a sketchbook that's been passed around to dozens of different artists. The zine was influenced by the beats
Beat (music)
The beat is the basic unit of time in music, the pulse of the mensural level . In popular use, the beat can refer to a variety of related concepts including: tempo, meter, rhythm and groove...
, and was consistent with the style of publications from the days of Kerouac, Corso
Gregory Corso
Gregory Nunzio Corso was an American poet, youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers...
, and Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
.
Contributors included everyone from Bukowski
Charles Bukowski
Henry Charles Bukowski was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles...
and Micheline
Jack Micheline
Jack Micheline , born Harold Martin Silver, was an American painter and poet from the San Francisco Bay Area. His name is synonymous with street artists, underground writers, and "outlaw" poets...
to people's pets. Ohio poets and artists included the likes of Daniel Thompson
Daniel Thompson (poet)
Daniel Thompson was a Cleveland poet, civil rights activist and advocate for the homeless. Thompson became the first Poet Laureate for Cuyahoga County, Ohio.-Work:...
, Maj Ragain, Amy Bracken Sparks, Ben Gulyas, Chris Franke, Harvey Pekar
Harvey Pekar
Harvey Lawrence Pekar was an American underground comic book writer, music critic and media personality, best known for his autobiographical American Splendor comic series. In 2003, the series inspired a critically acclaimed film adaptation of the same name.Pekar described American Splendor as "an...
, Gary Dumm
Gary Dumm
Gary Dumm is an Ohio-based comic book artist known particularly for his work illustrating the comics of Harvey Pekar. From 1977 until Pekar's 2010 death, he worked on Pekar's autobiographical comic series, American Splendor, where he appeared alongside such notable comics artists as Robert Crumb,...
, Masumi Hayashi
Masumi Hayashi (photographer)
Dr. Masumi Hayashi was an American photographer and artist who taught art at Cleveland State University, in Cleveland, Ohio, for 24 years...
and Ken Nevadomi. One reviewer postulated that ArtCrimes was the most significant publication of the Cleveland underground art scene in recent history.
Tremont
The affordability of Cleveland neighborhoods periodically caused mass migrations of artists. In the 1980s, Smith was one of the urban pioneers to move into the Warehouse District. In '85, he was one of many artists who moved from the warehouses to TremontTremont, Cleveland
Tremont is a neighborhood in the city of Cleveland, Ohio. Tremont is one of the oldest parts of Cleveland, and is home to restaurants and art galleries. The district sits just west of the Cuyahoga River and south of the Ohio City neighborhood. Tremont is home to numerous historic churches...
, in the typical pattern where artists move into undesirable but inexpensive neighborhoods, fixing up old buildings in which to live and work.
Shortly after Smith's move to Tremont, Cat committed suicide. Pappy Smith died shortly after, and Mother Dwarf (Florence E. Smith) left Las Vegas to come to live with Smith. Mother Dwarf began her art career producing collages for ArtCrimes
ArtCrimes
ArtCrimes was a Cleveland cult underground publication published by Steven B. Smith. The zine was influenced by the beats, and was consistent with the style of publications from the days of Kerouac, Corso, and Ginsberg....
. Smith and his mother's life together became a mother-son artistic collaboration.
Smith nearly died in 1991 from alcohol, and has been sober since then. One notable drunken episode was after an art auction. He'd bid loudly on every piece offered. He took a walk home with Mother Dwarf. He passed a fence of barking dogs, and started to howl "in communion." He leaned up over the dogs and they bit his scalp. The next day, Smith asked Mother Dwarf why he was covered in blood. "You mean..." she said, "You don't remember the dogs?"
Recent
In an interview in 2000, Smith claimed his voice was raspy "because I don't talk to anyone anymore." He'd become a recluse whose doormat said "Go Away." He said, "I had to learn silence. People only remember the old days when I shocked people with what I said or made or did. But there's a lot of beauty in the things I've done."In 2005 Smith's life hit a series of highs and lows. His mother died, he fell in love, he retired, and then discovered he had throat cancer. He published the final issue of ArtCrimes
ArtCrimes
ArtCrimes was a Cleveland cult underground publication published by Steven B. Smith. The zine was influenced by the beats, and was consistent with the style of publications from the days of Kerouac, Corso, and Ginsberg....
in 2006.
Smith is a documentarian. His journals are not the only documentation of his life. He continues with his 2500-page website agentofchaos.com.
Smith married poet Lady K in 2006. They began their relationship shortly after the death of Mother Dwarf in 2005. In 2006 Smith and his wife sold their home, gave away all of their possessions, and moved to Europe.