Dave Stewart-Assemblage Artist

Produced by Camille Steed

[Statewide Host] Art takes many forms. This week we take a look at one of the more unusual forms. It's called assemblage, and it's become a way for a Hastings man to preserve the past and make a statement about the present. He's the subject of Camille Steed's "Portrait."
[Dave Stewart] This is going to be the front door for -- of an automobile dealer which will be spewing out brand new shiny cars. By the time they get to the other box, they'll be like they are when I buy them -- all rusted and broken and bent and falling to pieces.
[Steed] Dave Stewart regularly makes social statements out of something as simple as a box. As an assemblage artist, he takes everyday objects, many of which he fishes out of the trash, and resurrects them into wonderful works of art which are as thought-provoking as they are unique.
[Stewart] Three seconds is a long time for a person to look at one piece of art, so I play the little game where I watch people in the gallery when my things are here and see if I can hold them for longer than three seconds.
[Steed] Stewart has an affinity for the old and believes we've become a wasteful society, an attitude he attributes to having lived with his grandmother as a child.
[Stewart] She was from a generation that threw nothing away. That's had some influence on me. A few hundred years from now, people who want to know about our society will have to go out and excavate the landfill to find out what we were really about, because we threw everything away when we were done with it. To me it's interesting how many typewriters now are being thrown away. They're practically all antiques, and they're wonderful machines. The older, the better. This particular one I've had since I was in high school, and that one's the starving artist's pencil sharpener. I figured if things really get tough I can sit out on the street, sharpen pencils, and make a nickel or two.
[Steed] A custodian at Hastings College, Stewart is still striving to reach his goals.
[Stewart] When I started taking art classes, I said I'd allow myself 15 years. If I'm an artist at the end of 15 years, great. If I'm not, I've always wanted to play the violin. I thought tap dancing would be a neat occupation too.