Featured Local Artist: Steve Isbell

Ashley Hunter, ECB Publishing, Inc.

There is very little that Steve Isbell, a local artist and creator, cannot do. From putting together functioning instruments made from household items and cigar boxes, to electric lamps from old brass pieces, nautical art from gathered driftwood, cork wall art and animals made from an assortment of metal pieces, Isbell puts together inspired pieces that have gathered attention from around the country.

For most people, a roasting pan is a roasting pan, a spoon is just a spoon, and a teapot is just a teapot, but for Steve Isbell, those everyday items are the start of steampunk animal sculptures or a uniquely crafted electric guitar. For most people, a roasting pan is a roasting pan, a spoon is just a spoon, and a teapot is just a teapot, but for Steve Isbell, those everyday items are the start of steampunk animal sculptures or a uniquely crafted electric guitar.

Isbell calls it 'opportunity art', and his various pieces are mostly made from thrift store or yard sale finds, used corks or driftwood he collects from the shores of lakes and beaches.

From old kitchens bits and bobbles, Isbell constructs a mouse sculpture. From old driftwood, a hat stand is born. From a used cigar box or roasting pan, Isbell finds a guitar.

“It is opportunity art,” said Isbell. “Whatever I have an opportunity to find here and there in my travels, that determines what I make.”  Isbell takes common household objects and recycles them into unique pieces that are gaining attention around the United States.

“I've made hundreds and hundreds of pieces. They are all over the country,” said Isbell. He used to try and keep track of the places where his guitars, sculptures or cork/driftwood wall art had gone, but had since lost track. “I've got [pieces] all the way from Washington DC to Washington state.”

He isn't aware of anyone overseas owning his pieces, but does know that his driftwood art is hanging inside more than a few boat cabins. The uniquely nautical driftwood pieces attract a lot of South Florida boat captains.  “I've got several sea captains who are sailing with my pieces on their boats,” said Isbell.

For Isbell, tinkering and building comes natural to him, though it wasn't always an art form and income source. Growing up on a ranch out west, Isbell learned to accept a do-it-yourself attitude and fix what's broken rather than buy new...but he didn't always see a future in art and creation as his path.In fact, in high school, Isbell described himself as more of a 'jock' than an artist.  He played on a number of high school sports teams and slated to receive a scholarship to play collegiate football at Auburn. An injury cut those dreams short, and while young Steve Isbell didn't let that deter him from his goals, his current life might have been vastly different had he been drafted into the Auburn Tigers.

After graduating college, Isbell ended up joining the Air Force and serving over in Vietnam, where his ability to tinker and fix resulted in him working on F-5 Fighter Planes.

Eventually, after Vietnam, Isbell's journey brought him to Tallahassee, where he worked with a ceiling company until he ended up being diagnosed with cancer, twice, and had to retire due to developing vertigo.

It was while he was fighting his cancer that his art was born. “It started out more as therapy than anything else,” said Isbell. “I've always made stuff; my whole life I've been a creator of this and that.”

What started out as a side project to keep him busy has bloomed and prospered into so much more.

“It ended up going pretty well. Everyone seems to like my stuff pretty well,” said Isbell, humbly.

A little community has sprung around Isbell and his art. When he is set up at festivals or artisan markets, he has people who bring him corks or driftwood they saved for him. Musicians buy his cigar-box guitars as novelty items and at least one musician, a Fort Walton-based gospel singer, Susanna Lynn, uses an Isbell-created cigar box guitar in her act.

Isbell's house is a walk-in gallery of his projects, past and present. Throughout his home, you can find sketches that Isbell put down on canvas and covered in Isbell's own homemade frames, lamps made from old guitars, a lighthouse constructed out of plant pots, various wall art, or the one and only chainsaw sculpture that Isbell has ever made. There are a few causalities in his line of art, however.

“My wife doesn't have any silverware left,” admitted Isbell, “and at Thanksgiving, we'll have to buy a new roasting pan.”

Roasting pans, forks and spoons are just some of the interesting mediums that Isbell builds his creations out of. On his guitars alone, he uses old bullet casings for threat markers or a stove dial for a volume adjuster.

“When I see an object, I look at it a lot differently than most people. Where most people will see a garlic press, I'll see a pelican's head,” said Isbell. “Where others see a teapot, I see a steampunk animal. It's kinda strange sometimes how the projects build themselves; I'm just the assembler.”

One of the biggest problems he faces with his art is finding everything. If he has all the pieces together, and everything fits together the way he sees it in his head, he can finish a project in a day. It's often not that easy, though. “The biggest problem is getting all the parts together,” said Isbell.

Once he works out that aspect of his project and figures out how to make the vision a reality, the rest is just assembling and attaching everything.

“The biggest thing about art that I've found is that you can't be afraid to try,” said Isbell. “You can surprise yourself so much, and I do surprise myself.”

Interested in Isbell's Driftwood Designs art? Want to get a closer look at the various pieces he has constructed? Steve Isbell sets up booths at a variety of local festivals and markets.  But if you don't want to wait around for the next festival, you can contact Driftwood Designs at (850) 342-9884.