Artist Statement
My paintings capture the energy patterns of emotion on canvas using color, pattern and light. I'm evoking a mood... a state of mind... an internal event... something fluid and malleable rather than something existing solidly in the universe of here and now. I'm not trying to paint water or sky, but rather, the way water and sky feel. A tangible artifact of a fleeting moment so maybe you can go there again.
My work combines acrylic painting with assemblage, primarily metal and other found objects. I'm self-taught so the style and techniques are my own creation. I've spent a few years refining the work to a point where these two very disparate elements work together to create a completely coherent whole. This is something I'm very proud of, getting all the materials to work together in a totally integrated fashion.
I think color speaks very directly to our feelings and I like to use it in an emotional way. I work with many thin, transparent layers of paint in order to create subtle, lush color that you can almost fall into. This depth is very important in my painting; in some areas you can see all the way down to the base color. I work with the patterns created in this way to build up the shading and texture of the piece. I'm always trying to capture that certain shade of tropical lagoon at noon aqua that makes me want to cry.
The assemblage pieces serve to ground the work and give it focus. I like to use weathered metal and other found objects because they have a history, a story of their own to tell. They were something else before they became part of a painting; they have a sort of ambiguity that I like. They are out of context and yet they create a context of their own within the painting.
I like the idea of being able to escape from my ordinary state of mind and look at the world from a slightly altered perspective. That's why I've chosen to do this kind of work. I really think that looking at this stuff can take you someplace else.
My Wife, the Artist
As perhaps her most challenging work in progress, I feel that I am as qualified as anyone to speak to my wife's work. Creativity happens on such a subjective level, which transcends language, that the only way to truly understand it is to experience it, not to read about it. However, saying that, I will attempt to be as accurate and objective as possible about such a subjective phenomenon.
As a professional jazz musician, I am a relatively creative person myself and I do experience an extraordinary degree of beauty and serenity in my wife's art, as do many others who view it. Nancy has never had a course of study in art. She has developed her unique style over the last twenty years, on her own, guided only by her personal muses. During that time she has created a distinctive style and technique unlike anything else I have ever seen.
Nancy has created and sold her art through the various studios she has maintained during the past fifteen or so years. She now has a studio in Northeast Minneapolis where she participates in the Art Attack and Art-a-Whirl open studio events as well as the First Thursday open studios in the Northrup King Building where she is located. She has shown her work in a plethora of venues including local galleries. Her work is currently in Your Art's Desire gallery in Minnetonka. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota has bought several of her pieces as has Orefield Labs and Halkwind, Inc.
I have heard that the test of whether art is authentic is if the viewer senses a change in how one feels upon viewing it. I sense this change every time I view Nancy Stephani's creations, as do many others fortunate enough to experience them. I hope you will take this opportunity to join those ranks.
Andre Stephani
Husband
Excerpts from Andre Stephani's latest CD entitiled "Ninety Mile Bridge," original songs and American standards performed in an Afro-Cuban genre, can be heard at www.cdbaby.com/stephani.
