Steven B. Smith

Steven B. Smith (born 1946 in Wallace, Idaho), is an underground artist and poet from Cleveland, Ohio. He published ArtCrimes, a zine influenced by the beats.

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, Washington. He stole thirteen cars when he was thirteen. He haggled a deal with the government upon discharge; they agreed to pay for his education.

Smith married into an East Coast blue-blood family in 1969.

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. and "repellent and grotesque," with roots from the dadaist collages of Schwitters and Rauschenberg. Another reviewer says Smith's use of oxidized copper makes his works appear to be fetched from the bottom of the sea. This piece won the "most outrageous" award at the show.

Work

Smith worked longest as a computer programmer, which helped support ArtCrimes 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. Artists, musicians and renegades moved there to revel in Cleveland's industrial beauty.

SPACES Gallery was located on the first floor, making the warehouse the de facto epicenter of creative activity. 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 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 Kerouac.") 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. Mother Dwarf began her art career producing collages for ArtCrimes.

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. His most recent book, Where Never Was Already Is (published in 2018), includes several decades of his poetry as well as many black and white examples of his collage art.

Books Where Never Was Already Is [poems and collage art]. Smith, Steven B. Crisis Chronicles Press, 2018 Hip Cat Femur Whack Give a Doc a Bone [poetry]. Smith, Steven B. NightBallet Press, 2013. Stations of the Lost and Found [memoir]. Smith, Steven B. & Smith, Kathy V. The City Poetry Press, 2012. Unruly [poetry]. Smith, Steven B. Crisis Chronicles Press, 2011. Zen Over Zero: Selected Poems 1964-2008 [poems and collage art]. Smith, Steven B. The City Poetry Press, 2008.