ARTIST STATEMENT
My work is about the mythological and allegorical realities we construct as an act of self-preservation to confront loss and chaos. The natural world can symbolize growth, healing and peace as well as decay and danger. These images speak to this dichotomy. The figures exist in a fantasized natural world: lush, beautiful, surrounding the figures with comfort but hiding dark and foreboding dangers. It surrounds and constricts while the figures embrace and cherish their constructed beautiful prison. The realities we create for ourselves, while beautiful both comfort and insulate us from difficult realities.
The figures are mostly headless, as they represent more than a single person. I use my own body as a projection of my struggles to accept the present. As I age, and as my loved ones age, I am constantly readjusting my relationship with myself, my identity as a mother, daughter, wife and sister. I am mourning the loss of what once was, and struggling to accept the reality of now. The body synthesizes, morphs and contorts in an undulating exchange between tension and release, the eternal and the ephemeral, conflict and peace, and ultimately revealing a new version of ourselves. This work seeks to visualize the physical and spiritual sense of loss, reveal the process of personal evolution and express the ultimate acceptance of change.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
A New York City-based artist and educator, Stephanie Mulvihill’s work explores themes of creation, motherhood, and personal evolution: physical, spiritual and intellectual. Visual references to the body and internal anatomy overlap, meld and transform to create totems honoring our individual and collective transformations.
Stephanie’s love of drawing began while studying fine art at Washington University, where she received her BFA. Stephanie lived several years in West Africa before returning to the United States to further her career as an artist and educator. After graduating with her Masters of Arts in Art Education from Columbia University Teachers College, she continued to exhibit her work nationally and internationally. Notable exhibitions include “Art of the Educator” at MoMA in NYC, “Art Exchange” at Culture Lab LIC, NYC and the Limen Museum in Italy, “Collecting” at the Westbeth Gallery in NYC, “Red” at the New Hanlon Art Center in CA, “Uncontested” at the SLA Gallery in NYC, “Scribbles” at the Carter Burden Gallery in NYC and as part of Procreate’s “Archive” in London, England. Stephanie’s work has also been featured in numerous publications including The Huts Magazine, New Visionary Magazine, and Women United Art Magazine. She can often be found in her studio in Harlem, her garden or out running the paths of Central Park searching for natural surprises in urban New York City.
© Stephanie Mulvihill