Steven Anderson And The Amish Cleanse | Episode 40

Cohorts Joe and Matthew meet up with artist Steven Anderson at an offsite location. Detoxing from social media and technology is just one of the many topics they explore.

Steven shares his creative journey through spots across the country and globe. The nuts and bolts of an artist-run space are examined. Arts education, studio spaces, activism, and the creative community are highlights.

Matthew’s phone interrupts the conversation. Tree rings bring the conversation full circle.

(Un)required Resources For Episode 40

• The High Life With William Downs (Episode 15)
• After The Flood With Tori Tinsley (Episode 25)
• Meta Moments With Stuart Horodner (Episode 7)
• Day and Night Projects
• Joseph Beuys on The Art Story
• Howard Zinn on Amazon.com
• Gilles Deleuze at The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• The Savage Detectives at Amazon.com
• Thomas Nozkowski at Pace Gallery
• Charles Bukowski at Amazon.com
• Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design, Georgia State University
• Nancy Popp
• Ryan McGinness

Who Is Steven Anderson?

Steven L. Anderson’s work is about the power of Nature, and the nature of power. His artistic practice attempts to view the systems of the natural world from the perspective of a plant or a tree—hoping to bring a whole new way of seeing the world, which can open up new ways of seeing our human systems.

Alone and collaboratively, and across several media, Anderson engages in projects that use this shaman-like empathy with nature to perceive, identify, and work with the energy flows that surround us. Many of these “energy strategies” are manifested in the studio, artworks which function as tools for activating energy in individuals and communities.

Anderson’s artistic goal is “to make images, things, spaces, and situations that fuse the exhilaration of the human spirit with the ferocious beauty of Nature to make a palpable, tingling essence.”

Anderson received a BA in media theory from the University of Michigan, and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in painting, printmaking and graphic design.

A founding member of artist-run gallery Day & Night Projects, Anderson is a recipient of the first annual TAR Project Therapeutic Artist Residency in 2016. He has been a Studio Artist at the Atlanta Contemporary (2013–16), a 2015 Hambidge Center Distinguished Fellow, and a 2014–15 Walthall Artist Fellow. A collection of Anderson’s notebooks spanning twenty years belongs to the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University. He has exhibited in Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Miami, and Chicago.

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