Photo by Rachel Buth
This week, Off the Cuff sits down with Plaid Tuba affiliate Steven Kaishian, creator of Infrastructure Canvas, a triple-primed cotton canvas stretched over a handcrafted frame backed by rigid foam. Built to specification, the product marries the texture of canvas to the stability of hardboard and is ideal for painting, drawing, photo-transfer and more.
How did Infrastructure Canvas get started?
I was an engineer for over 30 years. The only reason I’m doing this is the company downsized. My wife, Pamela Anderson, is an abstract artist. I was stretching her canvases and a lot of them had cross-bracing behind and when she’d press down on them it left a ghosted image. A light bulb switch went on—I said, “I think I can fix that for you.” A number of prototypes went by and I came up with this idea.
What sets Infrastructure Canvas apart from conventional stretched canvas?
One of the things that’s slick about this is if the artist has got to ship it—especially if they’re stacking different size ones—they don’t have to worry about damage. I can remember moving Pamela’s [conventional canvases] and we always had to worry about whether we were going to have a corner digging into the canvas.
A lot of artists are looking for a unique size too and there is no price increase for custom sizes. I’ll do whatever size they need. Also, if they’re looking for something unusual as far as the texture of the canvas, I can just use an electric sander and sand it smoother.
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The other thing I’m doing is making floating frames for artists. It basically just gives the appearance that the canvas is floating in there. There’s a gap. If they’ve got other frame ideas, I like entertaining that too because I was an engineer so I like designing new things. It makes the whole process more fun.
How many artists have commissioned you so far?
To date, I’ve made canvases for about 55 artists.
Tell me a success story.
Reggie Baylor used 11 of my canvases for his 12-foot-by-7-foot Oh Deer Oh Dear. They’re bolted together and it can all fit in the back of an SUV. He said he almost was going to stop painting because he couldn’t stand the fact that the canvas was moving because he draws and then he tapes. He would press the tape but a lot of times it wouldn’t stick really well and his canvas would be all stretched out when he was done. There’s another piece where he started on a regular canvas and he had drawn what he thought were straight lines with a straight edge and he finally got tired of working on the canvas and told me to make him a stretcher. We re-stretched it and he went over the lines and they weren’t straight anymore—he had to redraw them. So he says he’s saving tens of hours now because he’s using my canvas.
What is your pricing structure?
If you go online and look at the higher-end canvases for someone like Blick, I am right on a par with theirs. A 4-by-4 foot is $105 and if you’re buying in multiples then I take 10% off. I offer discounts to local groups like Wisconsin Visual Artists and League of Milwaukee Artists. I’m also willing to work with college students and give them an even better deal.
To learn more about Infrastructure Canvas or place an order, visit infrastructurecanvas.com or call 414-559-0935.
