An art industry “outsider,” Starr has built a career outside the traditional art system. After a gallery exhibition at the Agora Gallery in New York in March of 2006, Starr wrote in “You, Me and Morrissey” that “the traditional gallery system is dead,” and vowed to never do another exhibition with a mainstream gallery. His audience consists of thousands of readers of his blogs, books, and private collectors of his paintings.

Childhood and early career

Sean Starr was born in La Mesa, California. Sean was the fourth of six children of his parents, Dale Thomas Starr (the surname was originally Staryavsky, and was changed by Dale's parents when he started school) and Kathleen Clark. His father was a first generation American of immigrant parents of Lemkos-Rusyn (Ruthenian) ethnicity, and his mother was the daughter of Scottish immigrants from Edinburgh, Scotland. Starr's early childhood was spent growing up in the Cleveland, Ohio Ukrainian-Polish settlement of Parma Heights. The family lived across the street from Valley Forge High School on Independence Boulevard until moving to San Antonio, Texas in 1976. Starr's mother was one of Jehovah's Witnesses, his father converted to the faith in the early 1980's. Sean has two older brothers, Michael and Jeffrey, an older sister, Eve, a younger brother Jonathan, and a younger sister China.

In the early 1980's Starr dropped out of Jefferson High School in San Antonio after his first few months, and moved alone to Orlando, Florida at the age of fifteen. It was there, while working as a stained glass window cleaner in Orlando's downtown Church Street Station, that he first became interested in translucent color.

After returning to Texas in 1986, Starr worked with his father in the West Texas town of Sonora, doing commercial paint graphics on vehicles. This period had a large influence on his future use of color blending and composition.

In 1990, Starr was commissioned by a bicycle shop, downtown San Antonio to create a 10 foot by 20 foot mural inside the store. The San Antonio Express News called his mural “Starr's murals show great promise."

In 1992, Starr held his first one man exhibition at San Antonio's Oonies Coffee House. In that same year he was offered a contract to exhibit his work at the Agora Gallery in SoHo New York, which he subsequently turned down.

Starr continued to paint and exhibit in small galleries throughout Dallas' Deep Ellum District until the mid 1990's, while working with his father doing commercial graphics, when his father was diagnosed with cancer, and died several weeks later.

Commercial Design

Starr moved to the Seattle/Tacoma area in 1999, and worked for a variety of commercial graphics firms in Puget Sound creating design for vehicles, print and the web.

Return to Painting

In 2004, after five years of inactivity, Starr began painting again, and developed his current style of what Agora Gallery Director, Angela DiBello dubbed as “Lyrical Abstraction.” In 2005 Starr moved from Buckley, Washington to the city of Tacoma and became involved with its diverse arts community. It was in Tacoma that Starr met Tacoma School of the Arts Instructor and photographer Chip Van Gilder who arranged his show at the University of Washington, Tacoma as well as interviews for the Tacoma Art Museum and the first “Meet the Artist” event held by the Tacoma Chamber of Commerce. Starr was also invited to place a large piece (60” x 90”) titled “What You Think, You Become” on permanent loan with the Tacoma Chamber of Commerce, which was displayed until 2008 in their window on Pacific Avenue.

The University of Washington, Tacoma

In late 2005, Starr began work with Chip van Gilder and Tacoma painter and spoken-word performer and painter Jeremy Silas for the exhibition to be held at the University of Washington, Tacoma. Starr and Van Gilder also co-organized an arts meeting at the Temple Theater in Tacoma which had several hundred attendees from the Seattle/Tacoma arts community to discuss the future of the arts in the Puget Sound area.

On January 3, 2006 Starr began painting a mammoth sized (8 feet by 24 feet) canvas held by a wooden structure built by Starr and Silas. By late afternoon, Starr had completed the piece which was first exhibited in March of 2007 in San Francisco, titled “Cuore Mio” This was the first of Starr's “Action Painting” projects that featured Starr painting live, in front of an audience, to the music of British singer, Morrissey's music.

The Napa Exhibitions

Weeks after the exhibition at the University of Washington, Tacoma, Starr moved his studio to San Francisco, and began organizing a project with Award Winning Bay Area photographer Ryan Notch at California's Napa Valley wine country that would span the period of March 18 to May 27 in 2006. Starr again painted live, this time at eleven wineries, with the final show downtown Napa at Rocca Family Vineyard's Tasting Salon.

New York Exhibition

On March 3, 2006 Starr's exhibited his work in a group showing titled “Lyrical Abstraction” at the Agora Gallery in New York's Manhattan district.

San Francisco Exhibition

In late 2006, Starr began working with Institute of Unpopular Culture founder David Ferguson on Starr's live “Action Painting” exhibit at San Francisco's Workspace Limited Gallery in the Mission District. The show was titled “Morrissey Ruined My Life,” and again featured Starr painting live tot he music of British singer Morrissey, that Starr called “The World's Greatest Living Poet.”

The San Francisco exhibition was both embraced and ridiculed by the media. It was picked as one of the top ten (#4) things to do by San Francisco Magazine and Flavorpill, and panned by The San Francisco Bay Guardian who called Morrissey's music “weepy chick rock” and Starr's paintings “equally histrionic swirly canvases.” Documentary filmmaker Rebecca Allen filmed the event, as well as extensive interviews with some of the hundreds in attendance who came from as far as Israel for the show. Starr painted a huge canvas (12 foot by 8 feet) live in front of the audience to the music of British singer Morrissey's music. The gallery also had over 50 pieces from Starr on exhibit during the show.
 

Influences

Artists

Starr's has long held that his largest artistic influences have been Jackson Pollock and Russian painter Marc Chagall. His move to the Puget Sound area in 1999 brought him his first exposure to world renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly which reignited his interest in exploring translucence in his work.

Philosophy

Starr's also cited in his interview with Vanessa Finney, that the philosophy of writers such as Plato, Socrates and R.G. Collingwood has influenced aspects of his artwork and writings. Also listed is Pythagoras, whose “Golden Ratio” principle, Starr cited as “redefining” his composition, and he claims can be found in all of his work.

Pop Culture

Starr has also made reference to a variety of Pop Culture influences on his work ranging from Punk Rock and New Wave of the 1980's to classic country music artists like Johnny Cash and Don Williams.
 

Series

Starr groups his work into series, which are variations of the same size and color. The subject matter for his series include classic books (Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream and Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac) and other influences including Starr's interest in Latin (The Pictor Ignotus Series) and Morrissey's music (The Morrissey Series and The Morrissey Ruined My Life Series).

Written Works

Starr's first published work was a series of Guest Editorials written for the south Texas newspaper the Wilson County News. Starr chose politically charged conspiratorial subjects for the majority of the pieces that dealt with the World Banking System.

In 2006, he began the writing of his first published book “You, Me and Morrissey” (2007, ISBN 0-8021-3553-6) with San Francisco co-author Colin Nasseri. The book is a collection of autobiographical short stories that detail the two authors growing up in the south Texas city of San Antonio in the 1980's and the influence that British New Wave music had on the author's development. It also chronicles the multiple hospitalizations and prescription drug addiction faced by Starr over a five year period in the Puget Sound area, both author's divorces, as well as Starr's return to artistic projects after years of debilitating depression and artistic inactivity. The book was immediately embraced by readers internationally, selling its first copies within a few hours of being made available as a pre-release through MySpace. The book continues to be one of Subculture Books best sellers.

In April of 2008, Starr released his second published title by Subculture Books, “The Artist's Tao- 44 Principles for an Artist's Life,”(2008, ISBN 0-8021-3553-6) a collection of sentiments inspired by The Tao Te Ching, and hundreds of conversations since 2005 between Starr and artists he has corresponded and worked with.

Starr has also published a variety of poetry on his MySpace blog which by May 1 of 2008 had 8,000?? blog reads. Starr has also written a short, one act play titled “The Night I Got Drunk with Jackson Pollock,” and is currently working on several more full length novels.

Subculture Books

In 2007, with help of Denton, Texas magazine publisher Nate Leonard Starr formed Subculture Books, LLC. To assist other writers following the international success of Starr's book “You, Me and Morrissey.” The book was originally released in 2006 by French publisher Éditions Marie-Claude, and was purchased and re-released by Subculture Books in September of 2007.
In November of 2007, Starr acquired full ownership of Subculture Books and relocated the company to the southern California resort town of Big Bear Lake, located in the San Bernardino mountains.

In late 2007, Starr and Big Bear author and poet Shane Lee started collaboration on the Ursa Major Poetry Slam in Big Bear City, California which led to Lee joining Subculture Books as co-owner in March of 2008. Lee has traveled to China, and Europe and spent a year in France where he further developed his unique style of prose.

In the summer of 2008, Starr returned to San Francisco where he operates the San Francisco office of Subculture Books, paints and writes.

Music

From 1988 to 1989, Starr performed, and wrote the music for the band “Napoleon Solo” at nightclubs in Austin, Texas. The band premiered at Austin's The Cave Club in 1988. After several recording sessions, the band released two album length demos, one of which “The Line That Divides” made regular rotation on college radio play lists, and placed the band on The Cleveland Plain Dealer's Entertainment section cover in 1989. Starr continues to perform occasionally at open mic nights at independent coffee houses. Starr's flyer designs advertising the Austin shows for Napoleon Solo can be spotted in the background of scenes in the Austin based film “Slackers.”

•  
• Coverage of "You, Me and Morrissey" and "The Artist's Tao"
  Artnow Magazine
• "Obsessive"
  Entertainment Weekly March 23, 2007
•  
• "Pretend you’re in Manchester, throw on your blackest brood-pop garb, and indulge your angsty inner adolescent at artist Sean Starr’s Morrissey Ruined My Life show."
• San Francisco Magazine February 2007
•  
• "I'm sure the king of weepy chick-rock will inspire equally histrionic swirly canvases from Starr, who also happens to have a piece hanging in the Governator's office."
• San Francisco Bay Guardian February 1, 2007
•  
• San Francisco Show Photos from Art Business
  Artbusiness.com
• "Starr has created his own version of Abstract Expression"
  Angela Di Bello/ Director Agora Gallery New York, NY

  "Pick of the Week"
  Flavorpill January, 2007 (San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, London, Chicago)

  Quotes

  "YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC AND AWESOME! I WAS JUST REVIEWING YOUR WEBSITE AND I WAS
  AMAZED AT YOUR WORK. I AM FLOORED BY YOU! I LOVE THE COLORS AND THE STYLE IS PERFECT."
  Keesha Henry
  San Francisco
  
  "YOUR PAINTINGS ARE LOVELY"
  Christopher Fabbri
  Artist
  
  "NO SURPRISE, YOU CREATED TWO AMAZING PAINTINGS AND I AM HONORED TO OWN THEM!"
  Ryan Notch
  Ryan Notch Photography
  
  "I AM ENJOYING YOUR WORK IMMENSELY. IT'S REALLY AMAZING. I CAN'T SEEM TO STOP LOOKING AT YOUR
  'MUSES' SERIES, THERE IS SOMETHING VERY INTENSE ABOUT IT."
  Maya Jewell
  Bakery of the Poets
  
  "BEAUTIFUL"
  Arnold Schwarzenegger
  Office of the Governor
  
  “FANTASTIC. INSPIRED.”
  Jessica Torrant
  Indian Orchard, MA
  
  “INSPIRING”
  Ann Naylor
  Austin, TX
  
  “GREATNESS”
  Suzanne Johnson
  Ontario, Canada
  
  “YOUR WORK IS WONDERFUL!!”
  Sherri Wheeler Director, ART4MS
  Carrollton, TX
  
  “LOVELY WORK AND LOVELY WEBSITE TO GO WITH IT!”
  Ryan Lotz
  San Francisco, CA
  
  “YOU ARE OBVIOUSLY AN ARTIST AND YOUR WORK IS CLEARLY ART. I ADMIRE YOU AND YOUR WORK!”
  Gary Lester
  San Francisco, CA
  
  “I TRULY LOVE YOUR WORK AND AM GONNA KEEP TABS ON YOU! I GOT ON YOUR MAILING LIST AND LOOK
  FORWARD TO SEEING MORE.”
  Michele Thigpen
  San Antonio, TX
  
  “I HAVE TO SAY THAT YOUR PAINTINGS ARE BEAUTIFUL... AS ALWAYS, AND YOU KNOW I'M A DEDICATED
  "SEAN STARR" FAN...”
  Pam Hubler
  Santa Clarita, CA
  
  “PERFECT”
  Brian Miller
  Orange, CA
  
  “BE CREATIVE, NOT ONLY IN YOUR ART, BUT IN HOW YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE DAILY.”
  Peter Max
  New York, NY
  
  “YOU MAY BE MY MUSE”
  Holly Wallace
  Berkeley, CA
  
  “HAVING LOOKED THROUGH YOUR WEBSITE THOROUGHLY, I AM VERY IMPRESSED. YOUR WORK IS LYRICAL
  WITH AN UNDERCURRENT OF STRENGTH--CREATING GREAT BEAUTY.”
  Nancy Vicknair
  Alameda, CA
  
  “AWESOME! CONGRATS ON A GREAT SERIES!”
  Portland Press
  Tacoma, WA
  
  "BEAUTIFUL"
  Dale Chihuly
  Seattle, WA