Evan and Stacey Smith
Photos provided by Evan and Stacey.
Explore: www.evanandstacey.studio
Connect: www.facebook.com/evanandstacey.studio
Instagram: @evanandstacey.studio
5(ish) Questions for is a chance to discover and learn about St. Louis Creatives, Community Champions, and, well, just interesting people in and around our city. It's a deep dive into what they love and where their passion lies. It's an opportunity for all of us to see our region from a different perspective. This written interview is a peek into their lives and their outlook on St. Louis.
Stacey and Evan Smith are a creative duo who blend their distinct talents—engineering and sculpture—to create collaborative art reflecting their shared experiences. Their work explores personal and universal themes, inspired by their public service roles and the vibrant artistic community in St. Louis.
Self Care, new work by Evan and Stacey.
Tell us about yourself.
Stacey enjoyed working with her hands from a young age, and received an engineering degree from Mizzou so she could build things. She is now a project manager for roadway design and construction and builds things in her free time as an artist. In this collaboration, Stacey is a business manager, shop assistant, and represents a different audience for the work. Outside of work and art, Stacey is also a musician, gardener and lover of books.
Evan has been making things for over 15 years using various mediums. He started college when he was 26 and graduated with his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2016 from Webster University. After exhibiting locally and nationally he began graduate school at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, receiving his Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture in 2023. Since graduation, Evan balances reading, video games, making art and teaching various mediums at St. Charles Community College and UMSL.
How did you get started?
We met in Columbia, Missouri in 2007, around the time that Evan developed an interest in drawing and painting. Moving to St. Louis for Stacey’s new job, Evan started taking private drawing lessons before starting college at Forest Park Community College. Through his schooling, Stacey became interested in his work, and occasionally helped, especially as Evan transitioned from 2D to 3D works.
It wasn’t until 2017 that we decided to officially collaborate on art. Evan was offered a show at Forest Park Community College and at that time was doing a lot of work with light. Evan didn’t have the skills to do the lighting as he envisioned it but Stacey did, and helped him with 4 of the pieces in the show. After the show opened, Evan felt like Stacey should get credit for the work she had done and asked her to be an official part of the art making process.
Lookout, new work by Evan and Stacey.
This collaboration, like our relationship, has been through various stages. For the most part Evan is in the studio making and Stacey works on logistics and grounds the practice. Recently, we have been working on a new body of work called Take Care and have been exploring how each of us deals with the different scenarios of our lives. Because of the personal nature of the work, we have been able to talk more about the work together and create scenarios for both of us and our audience.
What drives you; what gets you out of bed every morning?
We both serve the public in our daily jobs and find great satisfaction in them. Stacey works for the state government, and Evan is a professor. Art is a way to process these jobs and the experiences we have in them. The new work we are creating is meant to be a reflection of the weirdness of everyday life and is partly how we process our experiences in public service. Working with a diverse set of people, we tend to get some pretty interesting stories and begin to see patterns many of us share. This new work is meant to be about scenarios that we share with other people and how we connect as humans in various ways.
What are some of your goals for the next year, or the next 5 years?
Since Evan graduated from SIUE in 2023, we have been honing our practice: figuring out the best ways to collaborate and how best to create cohesive bodies of work. Through a 2024 residency at Stove Works in Chattanooga, Tennessee, we were able to make progress on both of these challenges. Our immediate goals are to continue this work to learn how to make space for each other in creative work and to build on new work we are making that explores the weirdness of life. Over the next five years, our goal is to make our art practice sustainable, while also still finding ways to give back. Recently, we have been making and selling prints to make our work more affordable. You can check out all of our work on our instagram page or our website.
What inspires you about St. Louis?
It is really inspiring and exciting to see so many different kinds of artists continue to make work in St. Louis. There are a lot of good reasons to quit making art (trust us, we know) or to leave St. Louis to pursue an art career. But it’s amazing to see artists in St. Louis continue to push the boundaries of art and represent the midwest really well.
Also, it is great to live somewhere that is so affordable.
Stacey and Evan working through strategy for their installation, CONTINUUM, at Foundry Art Center in St. Charles, MO 2023-2024.
You’re A Big Kid Now, work by Evan and Stacey.
That’s All Folks, new work by Evan and Stacey.
A-Frame, new work by Evan and Stacey.
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