Pure artist - Steve Storz

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Steve Storz

Steve Storz, originally from the industrial Gulf town of Texas City, recalls his first awakenings as an artist when he picked up a rusted spring from the alleyway behinds his parents’ home. The spring started a collection in a junk drawer in his, normally, immaculate room.

By the time he had entered early adulthood, his first electro-mechanical sculptures, monster heads with moving mouths and lights in their entrails, had been shown in the first science fiction convention in Eugene, Oregon where most of his ordinary schooling occurred.

For about 15 years he maintained a cavernous studio in a San Jose cannery left over from the 1930s. The nearby Silicon Valley became a mountainous supply of electronics and cast-off industrial materials. His work included large scale installations for haunted houses, night clubs, film and performance-art companies, electronic and steel sculptures, avant-garde music, the World’s Largest Top Hat and a smattering of two dimensional works.

He currently lives in Taos, New Mexico where he concentrates on the steel and electronic sculptures, some fine art constructions resembling ancient-futuristic architecture, while another line are Grunge Machines made of mechanical VCR and answering machine scraps, that he refers to as ‘the teeth of darkness melted down to a waxy smear’.

He shows periodically across the United States and markets most of his work to individual collectors.

Artist's Statement

Where does nature end and technology begin? For me the boundary is blurred and flexible. I am inspired by the architecture of industry and nature. My towers of steel stand as beacons of hope in a disheveled world. In my creations there is light from within that penetrates the darkness, a warmth that overcomes the coldness and habitation in the abandoned.

Pieces of the past and present are fused to form ancient structures of the future/. The mood of the towers change with the changing of the day, position of the piece, and outlook of the viewer. By day the richness of textures can be seen….the painted surface of the roughened steel exterior, intricate criss-crossing of gantry-like supports. By night, the sensuous glow of red, amber and orange illuminate a darkened space giving a mysterious quality. Although each series has a special story to tell, each tower stands as a reminder that there is no obsolete for that which can be appreciated for its beauty.

The inner sanctum of my mind finds a twisted path among the viscera that is life. It contorts the plain and derives the oddness from its deepest trenches. It wrenches the flossy, tangled sinew of chaos from the underside of my efforts to be sane and displays them!

In the life of all humans there are pulls and drags to act in ways that are not universally desirable. The strong avoid and shrug off these desires, and yet they seem to reemerge. Gratefully, I am one who leaves artifacts from this process. These are symbols of my struggle with difference, pride, desire, ambition and respect.

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