Stephanie Visser

My work is consistently inspired by an interest in the natural world and the collision of that world with the world of architecture and human beings. There is no literal reference to these influences. However, there is an emotional reference, distilling and merging the elements that make up the complex landscape of our modern experience whether urban or rural. The people, places and things that reveal themselves are nonspecific and yet perhaps are recognizable as something known or remembered. like that name or that word you struggle for on the tip of your tongue. A non-pictorial representation that is deeply intimate and suggestive, where the tug of sensation comforts, or pinches, stirring up emotion and memory: mind photographs that reflect everyday life and the way it impacts one: sunlight and shadows: stillness and movement: sound and quiet.

The pieces themselves are created from water mediums and other mixed media on a multitude of surfaces usually in series. I begin by laying down a gesture, which leads to color, shape, and form until something in it moves me, like a Rorschach inkblot but infinitely more subtle. Images are built layer by layer through translucent color washes, scumbled paint, markings and collage made up of bits and pieces of cast off materials that enrich the surface to reveal a lyrical, magical and often mysterious world.

A native of southwestern Michigan, Stephanie Visser relocated to sunny southern California. Educated at Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids Michigan. She continued her education in fine arts and painting at Western Michigan University and Pasadena College of Art and Design working with artist and painter Mary Winterfield a well-known painter and educator.