I’ve always been interested in objects as animate, having space and feeling and that the spaces between objects also have kinds of feeling I see the body as a place for events as much as the space the body occupies. I find that the formal reflects subject in a literal way. My paintings are figurative and architectural and often dreamlike with family members in archetypal scenarios. I sometimes incorporate found materials, the surface being another thing with its own integrity to have relationship with.

Painting gives me a deeper view of the events that build my life. Events such as childhood, family, landscapes both natural and cultural, and seeing this as a mother, and woman artist. Besides being the source of creative expression female sexuality is assigned many roles in society that have changing values attached to them. I am interested in how these values reflect attitudes within society and that women are the perpetrators and carriers of these attitudes. The experience of being a woman is a constant factor in my work and exploring this is among my main purposes.

I admire the work of Eduard Manet for his application of paint, and the politics of ‘Olympia’, Paul Cezanne for his moving composition, Giorgio di Chirico and Frida Kahlo for their acceptance of the perplexing, the erotic psychology in Balthus and David Hume, Courbousier for his scale, Emily Carr for her feeling for nature. Louise Nevelsons use of wood, Alice Aycock for her understanding of magic in architecture, Anselm Kiefer for his literal materials, Neo Rauch for his poetry, Christo and Jean Claude for their acknowledgement of underlying forms, the guidance in the vision of Stan Douglas and Mark Lewis.

Stefanie Denz

September 2009