Artist Statement

            My work flows from a classical art education rooted in observation, interpretation and craft. For many years I explored the nuances of water media as the primary vehicle to illustrate the way light mediates space.  But a chance remark about the traditional shape and format of painting—why do paintings have to be rectangular? —caused me to reexamine not only what I had accepted as the natural state for painting (basically two-dimensional representation of three-dimensions on a flat surface), but also what I accepted as painting’s function.

            Conceptually, I am drawn to the experience of creating and perception, thereby finding painting’s function within the duality of object and experience. I find painting’s subject is as much the experience of looking, as it is the object being viewed. Like many other artists, I am often inspired by the nature of a specific geographical place - a place where clear, high-key light transforms objects and places from the ordinary to the sublime, where the interplay between the mundane and the awe-inspiring affirms my place and my relationship with an increasingly fragile and transitory natural environment.  Light is central to memories of places rooted in my identity and to moments of profound understanding.

            Through an intuitive painting process I explore the way light affects the perceptual relationship between viewer and place. My most recent work asks viewers to consider how the reflection, refraction and transparency of light mediates spatial relationships and transforms the color, shape and the identity of a particular place. The location of my artwork within the gallery also asks us to consider other ideas about painting, and to explore the dynamic relationship that exists between viewer, viewpoint, and what is viewed.

lakeviewstudio@icloud.com       © Stephanie Kozemchak 2016