Subject #17: Steven Eye
Filmed December 15, 2007
Solar Culture Gallery
Tucson, Arizona
Steven Eye is a sculptor and the Oz-like figure behind Solar Culture Gallery, Tucson’s premier all-ages arts/performance space. Eye is known both for his intricate metalwork and inclination to cook for musicians that play at his venue—an inclination all-too-rare amongst American concert-hall promoters. Eye usually makes delicious burritos or a delectable sort of Tex-Mex casserole. His meals are not to be missed.
When I first heard of Steven Eye, I assumed he had been born in the Southwest, raised in the Southwest and, as a Southwesterner, naturally evolved into a “Southwestern art figure.” I was surprised and delighted to learn that Eye and I are from the same Philadelphia suburb and, unless I am mistaken, he grew up around the block from my parents. Thus, I find conversation with Eye uncanny in the Freudian sense (i.e., eerily foreign and familiar)—though we might discuss punk, the Tucson scene, or aesthetics, Steven Eye has the same accent and general demeanor as Steve Wolfson, my motorcycle-riding uncle.
