New World, Old World

Stephanie Rowe

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The world that the artist brings onto her very small scale panels is broadly drawn from film stills. Here, an imaginary historical context is drafted to create an intimate and personal legend. The film that triggers the process may be happened upon randomly. The artist may be drawn to a directional style, a particular year and then to a specific subject. She speaks of wanting to depict imagery from the past, her ‘foreign lands’.

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The almost miniature scale of the paintings gives them a physical resemblance to film stills or negatives and there is a certain irony in carving out an image in oil that is the antithesis of the fluid, film making process. It’s an intriguing conceit that brings the viewer in deeply to Stephanie’s world, where objects she may have recently come upon are deftly inserted into the scene.

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The pictures are small and the statements they make are small. The intention is that they stand on their own or talk to each other quietly. In each scene there is a definite tension suspended by the distortion of the found film images that are the genesis for each picture. The jewel like quality of size and craft demand scrutiny.

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