"Dragon's Rising" 24"
Artist Bio & Statement
All creative expression comes from the One source. The blessed gift of being creative is my experience of “flow,” when time stops and joy is a stream burbling through me.
I am fortunate to come from a lineage of female artists and musicians. Having moved away from my early path as a pianist and vocalist, I had the fortunate misfortune to be felled by serious illness at 28 years old. Homebound and needing something to do as I moved from bed to couch, I reached for long-forgotten skills taught by my grandmother, mother and aunt. Thus began a new journey into my artistic soul. Through the grace of stillness, induced by my illness, I began creating as I felt called.
I move through the world by intuition, emotion, touch, smell, visual sensation. Thoughts, ideas and emotions have “feeling,” color, image and sensation for me…visceral experience. Fiber allows me to integrate my emotional and spiritual “felt” sense with my love for kinesthetic life.
My art shares my vision of the physical, emotional, and energetic textures of the natural world and internal experience. My work explores the relationship between nature, soul and humanity, and how the threads of this dynamic relationship impact emotion, personal awareness, and the experience of beauty as the soul is nourished. All speak to me of that communion which is the essence of Being and the nurturance of soul.
My designs come to me from dreams and dream-like visions, from nature, from the souls I meet, and from my own healing, evolving and spiritual journey as a human being. I seek to express either a deep felt-sense that wells up from inner experience and body-soul memory, or a spirit I sense in an image. I explore where that memory or spirit takes me in the process of transforming it into fiber. In the case of body-soul memory, I seek to follow the thread that creates the bridge between a felt truth within me and visual expression, making visible the inarticulate. Each piece leads me on a journey. In the end, I discover a spirit greater than I sensed originally. The work unfolds to show me beyond, as Leonard Cohen says, “….what I only know the limits of.”
I experience profound communion with nature, with Creation, with my own deepest self, and with G-d through the birthing of each piece. Poems often emerge to join the artwork, sometimes even preceding and inspiring the piece. My use of technique is defined by the needs of a given piece. I love the exploration of technique to “voice” the piece as it wishes to be “heard” and felt.
Stephanie's Creations 