ARTIST STATEMENT
This series pays homage to my upbringing. My childhood home is one of six atop a small mountain, and the last house at the end of a dirt road. I was surrounded by open fields, wooded areas carpeted in moss, worn dirt roads, and paths leading to rocky terrain and more tree-filled spaces. After 30 years in Chicago, I’m a city mouse. I love city life, but miss the calm that comes when surrounded by nature.
This work reunites me with the natural world. I spend time outdoors noticing, exploring, and collecting nature. This is part of my creative process, and natural treasures become the foundation for my pieces.
This work is nurturing; it brings me joy and peace. It allows me to reflect on my childhood relationships with the natural world and to cultivate and express a new way of forging meaningful connections with it.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
As a largely self-taught artist, I enjoy many different art forms. My current focus is multi-media work, which typically combines acrylic paint, paper (I often cut paper from books as my main source of collage material), beads, and gems. I work in smaller formats and love texture and color. I am obsessed with detail, pattern, and metallics. I am drawn to use these elements in part because I find the process of adding detail immensely satisfying. I also want to create something the viewer may find enchanting, that calls for further inspection, that allows the discovery of new elements and meaning with each viewing.
© Stacey Grieff