Excellent question. I might not know the answer myself if it weren't me - Keith Lo Bue.
And unless you stumbled into this store trying to find information on 1950's jazz drum legend Stuff Smith, you probably know that I'm an artist what likes his objects found. I've been finding, and making stuff from, those objects for thirty four years now. And I got pretty tired of trying to explain to folks that I'm not the jeweler to reset the diamond in your wedding ring, so I came up with 'Stuffsmith' as a succinct, if humorous, career category, and it really stuck.
When I started on this path I was an American living in Connecticut. Now I'm still an American - and an Aussie - with three lovely Australian/American kids, living down unda. And the objects keep getting found.
So now about you. It's probable you're here because you want to browse through my online store so you can spend some money and get something you like. I'm not going to talk you out of it - your purchase helps me continue to go to sleep each night excited about the creative possibilities the next day will bring. I know I've got to be the luckiest man alive.
If, however, you'd like some real background on the bells & whistles I've developed over all these years, you might want to visit my website - which is a very big and labyrinthine (read: old-school) shrine to all things pertaining to my work and career. If I had to compress my CV down to a sentence, it would go like this: "Keith has explored mixed-media artwork for the better part of a half-century, stockpiled some work in very fancy museums and important collections, and fills the gaps between making with teaching art to others around the world." That's about right.
Or maybe you'd like a window into my working methods. In that case you would probably do okay to check out my blog - which chronicles past work in-progress, step-by-painstaking-step.
For those wondering, I am indeed the same Keith Lo Bue who also has a thriving adjunct business as a bespoke capmaker, creating period-accurate headwear from the 1900s-1930s in fabulous and rare fabrics. Here's proof.
So thanks for coming by. If you need me, click the 'Contact' button on the left over there and tell me about it.
– Keith Lo Bue, 2022