KRISTIN STEPHENSON – Objects D’Art – 23 Sept-11 Oct 2019

 

Two large works on paper and a collection of drawings from the mid-1980’s to the present.
Presented courtesy of Jonathan Smart Gallery.

Kristin Stephenson (Hollis) first studied art in the England during the 1960’s and drawing has been central to her practice since. For more about Kristin Stephenson: Jonathan Smart Gallery – artist

Artist Statement:
Regarding OBJECTS d’ART (said/read like an English-speaker would…)
There exist several equations or even have-to’s about the time or endurance an aspiring artist or creator is required to undergo before they can properly find their voice and really get going. Usually all this happens more or less as one hits late teens or leaves that portal into the ultimate: the Arte Worlde.

For me, even though (apparently) at three I informed those who were interested that I wanted to be an artist, the actual path and magical transition into full-blown whatever, took somewhat longer. Life took over, art took not just a back seat but was shunted into a seemingly permanent position in the boot. Stored.

So, forget the 10 years full-bore accepting-every-offer that Grayson Perry prescribes, or the not-less-than 10,000 finished art pieces generally bandied about as initiation rites. Sometimes it needs bloody-mindedness and fantastic people who appear like angels, a very good kick in the pants – plus a dread overarching fear of disappointment.

Here, I think so much of other women artists, like Edith Collier, who became subsumed both by convention and by others. I grieve for the millions, aye

millions, of talented yet unexpressed lives, both female and male.

So late, but far better than never (as above), one resumed the creative way – except it wasn’t that obvious where it might be headed, and what actually was the best medium or method. By the time I got going again the initial art school experience, and all the U.K. rah rah was years and miles away, in another life.

Since then I have lost count of the occasions of classic paralysis by analysis.
Except something kept me at it.
That old monkey on the back wasn’t giving up.
And strange as it may seem it wasn

‘t until this year that the strands, directions, threads, ideas, & other what-have-yous finally made sense.
For better or for worse it’s now okay.

Nevertheless, during all the to and fro –
the mental what-evers, trials and errors, of sticking with it while wondering where the hell it was going, the one activity that went on continuously was informal, nothing-expected-of-you: drawing.

OBJECTS d’ART is a literal and obvious exhibition of some of this.
A partial self-portrait.

Kristin Stephenson
September 2019