Why my interest in Steve Stachini?

The following four months were spent working literally day and night, following streams of creative inspiration as Steve put together a number of Bowie art pieces. Working like a mad scientist living on caffeine and nicotine with the occasional few minutes’ sleep he managed to translate images from his head to the digital canvas. Despite his reserving judgment on the work, it seems to have come out extremely well in the opinion of those few who had the privilege of viewing some of the artwork before production. That was when Steve’s concept of a wrapped David Bowie room advanced to seeking realisation.

Steve had twice before written, through the proper channels, to seek David’s approval for Bowie-wrapping a car, though no reply ever came. Steve admits that a small part of him hoped he would receive a token of recognition from David or the family for what has now become the blackstar.STUDIO as the project was well underway months before the David’s passing, and Steve wanted David to see his work even if it was to be only via the internet.

Strangely, this was not the news of David’s passing but of the release of the ‘Blackstar’ video over the 2015 Christmas period. Besides predicting a huge 2016 for David Bowie, Steve had also been saying to family and friends that David had at least one more album to come and possibly even two. But on seeing the ‘Blackstar’ video for the first time, Steve shed many tears—alone. ‘It took me a short while to gather enough courage to show my family the “Blackstar” video, and I still cried at each and every viewing as I tried to tell my family that David was sending us a serious message, and I feared the worst,’ Steve told me. ‘I just couldn’t explain it, but something was telling me that the lyrics were suggesting that I might be that person who lifted a meter and bravely cried “I’m a blackstar.” I had these feelings of trepidation and nervous sweats. It was beautifully eerie’.

One can only presume that his friends were so busy working on that fatal day of the passing of David Bowie, January 10th, just as the Stachini's were, that it was the one day when messages, notifications, emails, social media, and so forth, were ignored by both parties. Steve fell asleep in his office at about 5 am (which is the norm for him) on the 11th after a 40+ hours solid artwork stint, totally oblivious the news echoing around the world of the passing of David Bowie, his idol and inspirational hero. Only a few hours later he was woken with the ritual offering of tea, and the family gave him time to awaken fully with his caffeine and nicotine. Then, as Steve lay in his reclining office chair, his family entered and simply asked if he had seen or heard the news. He instinctively knew what they were going to say as his heart turned to lead and his stomach churned. Their faces, tones of voice and nervousness confirmed to Steve that their next few words were going to impact his life hard—and they did.

While he was in the UK, it became even clearer to Steve that his previous five months of work were simply meant to be and that its raison d’etre was David Bowie. With silent strength, inspirational sadness, and the burning desire to create something so uniquely fitting for David, Steve returned to Spain and to the sleepless endless nights and continual days of artistic flow. There was however a brief slump period, when Steve was suddenly struck with the thought that many might view him and his work as jumping on the bandwagon. But with the support of those in the know about what he had already worked on for the past six months or more, Steve’s determination that the world had to see vision and his work was renewed.

The next few months would see the change in seasons, important global events, disasters and wonders of the world for the average person, but not for Steve. As for some crazed inventor, his days, weeks and months just blended into one continual timeline where the only focus was David Bowie and what had become the blackstar.STUDIO project. The studio had been set to be called Vision23, but with the loss of David there was no more question about it: it now had to be the blackstar.STUDIO as a lasting memorial tribute. With bouts of deep grief balanced by inspiration Steve continued in silence, out of view, content with his loneliness to bring his vision to reality.

For any external everyday life requirements, Steve’s daughter Kellie gladly took the reins as she too felt his passion for the dream and had happily became a part of the whole project from Day One. Now one of the hardest parts of the project was looming - how to finance the dream. Without shame and with gritty determination Steve began approaching literally anyone he could think of who might be in a financial position to risk taking the chance on his concept. Despite continual knock-back after knock-back, nothing was going to stop him. Creating the gallery was something that simply had to be completed no matter what the cost or consequence.

A suitable location for the studio had been found, and Steve prepared to not even be able to afford to live and eat, because this location had to have its rent paid. This was step one. Step two was to see if a deal could be negotiated with any of the top vinyl manufacturers to supply the raw material for printing, either for free or hugely discounted, in exchange for publicity and advertising once the studio was launched. Some companies were interested in the project, but ultimately no one was prepared to do a deal, much to Steve’s disgust and dismay. By producing CAD-data mockups of the studio along with visuals to explain his idea, however, Steve managed to get one long-term client and friend to do the vinyl printing at a good rate, and another friend was prepared to do all the canvas printing, as they had far superior equipment.

On a local level, though, word of the project was spreading, and enthusiasm and support were growing to the point of eagerness for the studio to open. Coupled with Steve’s first-rate social media marketing, which had accumulated many thousands of Facebook followers in support of something that still did not technically even exist, this local excitement was more than enough encouragement for Steve’s relentless drive towards completion.

With summer over, all of Steve’s wall prints were ready for shipping, and installation could begin whilst his 53 artwork pieces were being printed onto canvas. However, as the past twelve months had taken their toll financially already with zero income, Steve isn’t ashamed to admit that he even had to borrow the two hundred euros from a friend just to get his prints shipped to Spain. On the one hand, he was so close to realising a dream and showing the world his work as well as providing a crucial exhibition space with the mission of helping artists from all walks of life, but on the other he was virtually poverty stricken. It was obvious to some of those who cared about Steve and his passion that he still needed assistance, so the odd friend here and there spasmodically offered whatever they could afford in order to allow the launch to continue. Steve was in awe of the support for and recognition of what he was trying to achieve, even if he felt embarrassed at times.

There was still much work to do in the studio—simply painting the walls, taking care of basic electrics, creating the signage and decoration—and then there were the walls to wrap and the canvases to mount. The head of the local Culture Department also strongly advised Steve that the launch date should be the last week of September due to conflicts with fiestas and other events. Now the pressure was at fever pitch. With only three weeks until opening night. Steve worked for days on end with no sleep, spending literally 24 hours a day installing the vinyl prints with a little help here and there. Within a handful of days the main wall areas were wrapped and the studio was starting to take shape. A local fellow signs-and-graphics business friend offered to do the vinyl printing for the entrance area of the studio, which proved to be a huge relief as well as a welcome addition. Work continued with frantic professionalism when news came of delay in the canvas prints’ shipping due to unforeseen circumstances. Thankfully, they arrived just days before the launch night for which support was growing and a reasonable attendance was expected.

With frustration as well as some anger and sadness, and feeling like a tramp, Steve was not happy when at 7pm on Friday the 23rd of September 2016, after over one year in the making, blackstar.STUDIO’s opened its to the initial 30+ anxiously awaiting art fans, critics, and press.

I leave you with just a handful of comments I have seen from well wishers who only know of Steve through what he has done: