Shaun M. Baer

Shaun Baer

Shaun M. Baer was born on Halloween in 1983 in Reading, PA.  He studied sculpture at the Tyler School of Art and graduated with a BFA in 2007.  Shaun regretfully works at a sign shop, but in his spare time has been making furniture in his studio at Flux Space for the past few years.

I interviewed Shaun first because truthfully I wanted to get to know him better.  He is one of my friends that I see a lot and we have discussions about beer, baseball, and music.  However, we rarely talk about art and up until this interview we had discussed his art twice.  I wanted to talk about what he did in school and what he was up to these days when he’s hard at work in his studio. 

After the 2nd annual Fishtown Shad Fest, we headed over to Beer City, picked up a case of Black Label, and we were off to Flux Space.

What...Why?

I just decided that I should probably explain what this is and why in a little more detail.  Here it goes. 

I got the idea when I realized that I hadn’t seen any of my friends’ work.  While I was sitting in a bar in with a few people (whom I plan to interview soon) they were talking about some of their work they did in school. I was listening intently as I always do when my friends discuss their art.  Shaun mentioned that he had made a video and that he remembered putting it on youtube some years ago.  With some persuasion and an iPhone, I coerced Shaun into playing me this video.  This is that video.  At this exact moment I realized that all these people -and many of the other people I know- spent between four and five years at school making and creating art and that I (having lived in Philadelphia for just over a year at this point) had missed all of it.  Maybe its because deep down I really like people and find them profoundly interesting, or maybe its because I am jealous that all my friends got to have a bunch of fun without me.  Either way I decided that I had to find out what they did, what they’re doing, and how they feel about it.  And what better way to go about it then to use our favorite vices to get comfortable and open up the discussion.  RIGHT?! 

-Tim