Stevan Dupus II

Stevan Dupus was raised in a small suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. Being a child of divorce he traveled a lot of his childhood from Kansas City, Missouri to Albuquerque, New Mexico and back. At the age of 17, he came out to close friends as gay. After high school, he searched for a place to belong. Taking the advice of a good friend he took his last paycheck of $650 and headed West. Through chance and random luck, he ended up in San Diego, California and began taking night classes at San Diego Community College and in 2010 graduated with an Associates Degree. He continued his education at California State University Long Beach and in 2014, he become the first person in his family to earn a Bachelors Degree. During this time that he began a job working in a small gay bar named Cheers. The fifteen years of working in a the bar has been one of the largest influences on his work as a painter.
In 2019 Stevan became the first Masters Degree holder in his family, He is proud to look back at all the obstacles he was able to overcome in order to be an educator. It has been his goal to be able to give back to the community and help others accomplish their academic goals so that they too can find their own success stories. Stevan is currently teaching at California State University - Long Beach, Long Beach City College and College of the Desert in Palm Desert. His work has been seen in a KPBS documentary titled, “San Diego Gay Bar History” as well as in group shows at “The Studio Door” in San Diego and “Leimin Space” in Los Angeles.