We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Steven Rahbany. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Steven below.

Steven, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I started my sewing technique in 2019 while I was confronting unresolved emotions from childhood trauma. I imagined what symbolized comfort and safety, and pillows or anything sensorially soft and plushy kept coming back to me. Soft sculpture has a long history in art, but I wanted them to come out of a canvas and exist within the frame.

I started sewing fabric directly into canvas and stuffing it with pillow stuffing, using words or phrases that felt overwhelming and that confronted my uncomfortability. I hand sew my pieces, so the process can take weeks, but was therapeutic in a way to resolve those emotions. The result are these plushy objects that take on the existence and voice of my inner child, and his fears.

Over the past four years I’ve been experimenting with and perfecting materials and ideas that help the artwork take on more life and interact with viewers. Learning how different fabrics interact and behave with stuffing has been critical in the evoking certain emotions.

Steven, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My art journey has been somewhat of a winded road. I’ve been making art since 2010, and attended the University of Southern California, where I got my BFA in Art and Design. After graduating, I worked as a graphic designer, where I mostly lost my art practice.

After a year, I was completely drained creatively, realizing that art was a necessary practice in my life to feel fulfilled, so I started taking creative self portraits of myself, regaining my creative lifestyle and learning how to prioritize not only art, but myself. I started showing my work in shows around Los Angeles, and eventually developed my hand sewn pieces that I create now. Creating art has become a necessary lifestyle choice for me in order to feel emotionally grounded.

In this time I also started creating clothing, repurposing thrifted clothing and creating new pieces to wear from them. This practice helps push my creativeness and helps me pursue my interest in fashion as well as art.

This past year has been incredibly exciting, as I just finished an art residency at Art Share LA, where I was given a studio to make work for 3 months, give artist talks to speak about my art, and connect with the art community in the Arts District Downtown. I also just participated in the Other Art Fair LA, where I got to share my art and my story with hundreds of people as they walk through the fair.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A mindset I had to unlearn was how to exist as an artist in a country/world that functions under Capitalism. It’s common sense that the reason why many artists aren’t “successful” is due to the fact that success is typically measured by how much money you make, or how much your artwork can sell for. While this can be important for a career solely as an artist, it inextricably links your art practice and self value to metrics/money, especially if you create art from within. I had to rethink my mindset and make art for myself to begin, and then share it with the world so people can connect with it on a personal level, which in turns makes the art more valuable.

I still do graphic design as my full time job, which has allowed me to keep my livelihood and my art practice separate. This has enabled me to fully create what I want so that money is never a factor in my artistic process. Sure, one day it would be amazing to make enough money from my work where I can focus on that full time, but I have found a balance that has kept me creatively happy. That’s probably the most important thing to me, is that I enjoy what I’m doing.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I believe that the arts are critical to a functioning society. It captures and catalogs culture in real time, and is a constant reflection on society. That being said, we should be prioritizing the arts in ways of K-12 education and accessible funding/studio space for working artists.

Arts programs are almost always first to be cut in schools, and especially for young people, arts programs are critical for self expression and growth. I used to lead an after school art program in elementary schools, and the number one thing I learned was that a lot of kids needed to be invited and taught to express themselves. Once kids learned that art was meant not to make something pretty, but to let themselves be seen and heard, they immediately embraced it and became way more expressive. More funding towards youth art programs can set kids up to be more successful and lead them to viable art paths.

Another way for society to support artists is to fund subsidized art spaces/studios. In Los Angeles, there are barely any affordable artist studios, with many artists having to look outside of the city to be able to actually have a career in art. The downsides of Capitalism, again, and linking increasing rent prices to art making. If governments built more subsidized artist studios where artists can come and have space to create work (minus the pressure to pay money we can’t afford) the arts scene and culture can return back into the cities and create more community and conversation for the society at large. For instance, I work out of my apartment at the moment, because rent prices alone in Los Angeles are too expensive, and I can’t afford a studio unless I move outside the city. Art Share LA’s residency program is an amazing example of how accessible art studios can provide a significant change to someone’s art practice. Having the studio space allowed me to create art that I wanted and share it with a larger community.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://rahbanyart.com/artwork
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevenrahbany/?hl=en

Image Credits
For Image of me sewing into wood panel: Credit: Ree Magaña, Art Share L.A.