Meet Curtis Stage | Artist and Educator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Curtis Stage and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Curtis, what habits do you feel helped you succeed?
Making art is practicing… Practice and repetition are essential to creative growth. I always tell my students: “nobody got worse from practicing more” so developing a habit of digging in and encouraging muscle memory in whatever you do is so important. The practice is better the slower it is and the more mistakes you make. Over time, what once felt clumsy, weird, or wrong becomes fluid and focused. Practice exposes patterns (which I am very into). When you repeat a process you start noticing where you stumble, what tendencies you have, and most importantly the internal dialog with the medium and your research while practicing propels the artist forward into new spaces. I love when subtle shifts emerge from working over and over again. Repetition is not sameness; it’s a lab of small difference that can open up so many more possibilities.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am a multidisciplinary artist currently focused on photography and drawing.

For the past five years, I’ve been exploring how the “normal” way we see a photographic image can be upended. I’m drawn to the possibility of a photograph not serving as an index to something “out there” in the world, but instead leaning toward abstraction—an image that throws the viewer into a space not easily recognizable.

Through a kind of still-life photography, I play with pattern, distortion, and material tension to probe how perception organizes experience. My process diverges from traditional photography: I shoot commonplace objects, patterned fabrics, and reflective or textured materials; print them out; cut them up; and collage the fragments into sculptural arrangements. In the studio, I’ve built a structure where I can hang and “sculpt” these cut-up shapes. Once the staged composition feels right—which can take days—the shutter is pressed, and physical and optical phenomena collapse into a single frame.

My recent drawings grew out of this photographic practice. At first, they were a way to create new patterns for the photographs, but I soon began to value them on their own terms. They draw from Op Art, wave interference, and Turing patterns, while also nodding to psychedelic and mystical experience. I love how they appear perfectly symmetrical at first glance, but reveal subtle imperfections upon closer inspection.

Across both mediums, I explore how structure dissolves into sensation and how the viewer’s gaze completes the work. Optical ambiguity and rhythmic interference provoke the question: what am I looking at? Ultimately, the work engages consciousness itself—how we register complexity, search for meaning in abstraction, and experience perception as an unstable field.

As an artist and educator for over 25 years, I can say this path hasn’t always been easy—though in some ways it has, because I simply love making and being around art every day. What’s not easy is the commitment it demands. Choosing this life means embracing a way of being that much of society may never fully appreciate or understand. Most people only see the final product, not the long hours of labor, trial, and persistence behind it. To sustain it, you have to accept that this work isn’t optional—it’s necessary. For most creatives, it’s the only way forward. Over time, I’ve come to see art as a connector. Humans need to tell each other stories, and art does that in profound ways. I’ve also learned that art doesn’t need to solve the world’s biggest problems. Its power lies in adding to our shared human story—rich, textured, and a little wacky—woven into the fabric of everyday life.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If I were showing someone around LA, I’d kick things off in Long Beach at a couple of my go-to record stores: Third Eye Records and Fingerprints. From there, we’d make our way up to the Arts District in Downtown, stopping in at Vielmetter, Nicodim, and Night Gallery before grabbing lunch or a drink at Zinc or Bar Ama. Since I’m a season ticket holder for LAFC, the day wouldn’t be complete without heading to Expo Park to “tailgate” with some of the best fans & street-vendor tacos in the city. And of course, we’d cap it all off by catching the match in that beautiful, intimate stadium.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’m grateful to be a participant in the artist-run collective in Los Angeles, Durden and Ray. It is an exciting space for collaboration, experimentation and mutual support. We have eliminated the commercial gallery system and afforded each of us as artists/curators total control over how our work is framed and presented. D&R Members not only feature their own work/projects but are actively involved in curating and collaborating with local and international artists, building a dynamic exchange of ideas and opportunities. This peer-driven structure fosters community, visibility, and risk-taking—to advance artists at all levels of their careers and afford voices a larger platform that may otherwise remain in shadow in the greater art marketplace.

Website: https://curtisstage.com

Instagram: https://curtisstage.com/instagram

Other: https://www.durdenandray.com