Art For the Wild At Heart

Enter the world of Steve Cummings...

images inhabited by film noir heroes and heroines, outcasts from the Depression era, vintage gay couples, the transgendered, uncanny carnivals and circus performers, misfits, urchins, boxers…the sinister and the shattered.



“My art concentrates on the outsiders and misfits of American life throughout the 20th  and 21st centuries.  The images show characters and scenarios that seem to have been stumbled upon.  A narrative is taking place; the viewer becomes a kind of voyeur who must supply the storyline, details, or outcome.  The personalities of my subjects have been characterized as vagabonds, drifters of the road, the forgotten, those who may not have a voice but their stories must be told. Regret, melancholy, loneliness – even violence - may befall my people, but I’m also interested in avoiding sensationalism or exploitation through simultaneously conveying empathy, hope or compassion.  The 'inner light of the soul’ is bared despite adversity or disparity.

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The interiors are reminiscent of a mis-en-scene, prevalent in art cinema. The colors, lighting sense and chiaroscuro are influenced by directors such as Michael Powell / Emeric Pressburger, David Lynch and Mario Bava.  Fans of artists as diverse as Edward Hopper, Edvard Munch, Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Tamara DeLempicka, Cindy Sherman, Kathe Kollwitz, Lars von Trier, Tennessee Williams and Federicio Fellini may find my artworks of interest.”

 

"I have spent my whole life half in a dream and half in reality. Men have  understood this and preyed on my defenceless body with their tiger's teeth,  while my soul was voyaging elsewhere."
EDVARD MUNCH