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Filmed December 15, 2007
Solar Culture Gallery
Tucson, Arizona

Steven Eye is a sculptor and the Oz-like figure behind Solar Culture Gallery, Tucson’s premier all-ages arts/performance space. Eye is known both for his intricate metalwork and inclination to cook for musicians that play at his venue—-an inclination all-too-rare amongst American concert-hall promoters. Eye usually makes delicious burritos or a delectable sort of Tex-Mex casserole. His meals are not to be missed.

When I first heard of Steven Eye, I assumed he had been born in the Southwest, raised in the Southwest and, as a Southwesterner, naturally evolved into a “Southwestern art figure.” I was surprised and delighted to learn that Eye and I are from the same Philadelphia suburb and, unless I am mistaken, he grew up around the block from my parents. Thus, I find conversation with Eye uncanny in the Freudian sense (i.e., eerily foreign and familiar)—-though we might discuss punk, the Tucson scene, or aesthetics, Steven Eye has the same accent and general demeanor as Steve Wolfson, my motorcycle-riding uncle.