ARTIST'S STATEMENT:

Wendy Stephens is a contemporary artist and art-therapist, educated and trained in New York City. It was there that she became inspired by Art and studied Fine Arts at Lehman- City University New York. Wendy graduated with a MFA (Master of Fine Arts) degree in 1977. Wendy has shown her artwork both individually and as part of group exhibitions in New York City, Washington and Hawaii. Wendy most recently presented at various art groups in Britain on the topic of "Art-Therapy in the Arts". Wendy is currently involved with ICAW Biennale in Harlech, Wales-U.K., and with its art project of Absence/Substance. You can currently view her work at Sea View-High Street in Harlech, Wales-U.K.

Wendy's art represents a defying of formal form. Since early on, she has always been obsessed with the concepts of "nothing and something", whereby nothing is something, and thus the void exists as something. These universal themes translated into her art as constantly pushing definitive form into the extremes of representing the infinite void.

Wendy's abstract art is about color and texture as tools to invoke certain emotional responses from the viewer. Without giving too much definition to shape and line, the viewer is cast into an imaginary landscape that is meant to transport into the universal void. These works are extremely sensitive to color, texture, and space. There is a struggle to remove references of definitive reality, but rather, to portray universal aspects. The painting struggles through the process of removing any references to a fixed horizon, where a receding plane meets background. These paintings move through the continuum of having no real top, no horizon, and no tangible frame of reality. The works achieving this transition have become a part of a spectrum of universal concepts. Color as a universal concept transcends through a textural representation. The intent is for color to evoke a certain state of being or experience in the observer.

Wendy's love for the arts involves working with various mediums, including acrylic on canvas, acrylic and mixed media, and photography. Originally trained on 35mm, and 120mm cameras, she developed and printed her own black and white photos. Currently, she works with digital photography. Her recent art works combine both her photography and the use of other mediums such as: paint, mixed media, and collage.

Wendy invites the viewer to enter the art works and experience an abstract landscape of sensory experience with color and texture. Current art works use challenging conceptual ideas to evoke object out of placement and therefore viewed as art. Icons, defined as important and enduring symbols, are also used to serve as reference points, but incorporate a floating in space and time concepts.

Contemporary art must challenge and transcend, to be meaningful. The works must be created with INTENTION . . . with the value being the concept. Contemporary art is of a transcendent nature. Subject becomes the individual expression, but content becomes the timeless concept.