St’Art Up 317: City Way
Written by Samantha Ripperger
Launched just last year, St’ArtUp 317 is a competitive program aiming to match vacant commercial spaces in Downtown Indianapolis with artists, brands, startups and established businesses to create pop-up stores. With a similar goal in mind and new ties between PATTERN and Develop Indy, a sector of the Indy Chamber, this year St’ArtUp 317 will feature 30 pop-ups at 10 locations in and surrounding Downtown in order to showcase the authenticity of Indy’s creative class and in hopes to secure long-term tenants for underutilized storefronts, enhancing the overall cultural identity of our city.
This series of stories highlights artists, entrepreneurs and businesses that were selected to participate in this year’s return of St’ArtUp 317.
Steiner Studios —
Photographer Radie and Painter Evan met on everyone’s favorite social media site, Instagram! Both of them posted pictures of their art and not of themselves so to say that their art brought them together would be an understatement. One year after they started talking on social, they got married! The currently live in Indianapolis and co-founded their business, Steiner Studios. In the words of Radie and Evan, “we are partners in our art and our life and are enjoying every moment of the journey.”
Tell us about yourself.I am a landscaper and lifestyle photographer from Columbus, IN originally. I started in photography at the age of 10 as a 4-H project and have never stopped. It is my passion. I recently received the 2019 Hoosier Women Artist award and one of my photos hangs in the Indiana Statehouse for a year.
The other half of Steiner Studios is my husband, Evan. We met on Instagram via our art accounts. We followed each other for about two years – with no photos on our accounts, just art. One night he messaged me and one year to the date we were married. He is from NJ and has since moved here (he was in NY when we met).
Evan is an abstract painter and literally brings color to my world. I love our story.
Tell us about your business or art practice.We formed Steiner Studios and offer art consulting. We specialize in hospitality and corporate art. We strive to make uplifting and inspiring art. We are both influenced by nature and music and let our intuition guide us when making art. We offer work on various size canvases – Evan uses epoxy and acrylics. I print photos on metal, canvases and framed prints. We love creating large pieces.
What do you hope to get out of this opportunity?We hope to get more exposure for our art so we can have more opportunities to place our art. We really want to uplift and inspire others who view our art. Evan, also a creative writing major, coined it best “there is light everywhere,” and we hope to spread more light with our art.
CHECK IT OUT — Radie on instagram // evan on instagram
Stuart Troxel —
Stuart Troxel is not only a self taught painter, but also an author. He has shown at several exhibits all over Indianapolis and has published two novels with a third in the works. His paintings are inspired by personal interests, beliefs, ideas and experiences. Currently his work is on display at City Way located on the corner of South and East Street by The Alexander Hotel.
CHECK IT OUT — STUART ON instagram
Tell us about yourself.I was born and raised in a small, rural town called Middletown, IN. I have been interested in art and making art (self-taught) for as long as I can remember, but began paint/exhibit work full time in 2015. My work has been exhibited at places such as Gallery 924, The Harrison Center and The Indiana State Museum. My influences range from painters such as Edward Hopper and Rene Magritte to caricaturist Al Hirschfeld and Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson. Along with my visual art, I have also written two novels, dabble in the lost art of typewritten correspondence, and am in the process of writing a book about the history of The Beatles and this visual arts entitled In A Colorful Way.
Tell us about your business or art practice.Using oil on canvas, I paint works that form a personal narrative of my interests, beliefs, ideas and experiences. Often times I paint posed portraits using models or objects, other times I paint people I see on the street, therefore using a complete stranger to say what I want to say. I like to think my style is instantly recognizable, somewhere between impressionism and caricature, elegance and comic strip.
What do you hope to get out of this opportunity?I would like to use this opportunity to show that, while social media is a great way to discover artists, one can’t really grasp a creative work by scrolling aimlessly on a small, handheld device. Art is experienced best in galleries and museums, or at least in books in which one can sit and take time to study the work. With the St’Art Up 317 concept, viewers are able to experience artists’ works on their own time, on their own terms, face-to-face, and that’s what I look forward to the most. Although I do use social media to get my name out there, I’d much rather have real people experience my work in real time than gain a new Instagram follower.