Joanne Stephens
My work of mixed-media assemblage hes crystalized out of a fascination with found objects, residue of past ages, dead animals, cemeteries, bones, anthropology, Medieval art, Edgar Allen Poe, Salvadore Dali, Max Ernst, ect. In my shrine like environments I strive to perfect the magical process of uniting disparate objects to express a new conciousness; to connect us with the mystery of life by metamorphizing modern objects into timeless symbols of humanity. To quote a review in The North Coast News by Eleanor Cooney, co-author of the officially approved sequel to " Lost Horizon": " Her work does not soothe, it seethes; it is satirical, risque, witty, menacing, and elegantly macabre, and for some of you, it will be downright disturbing. No small part of her skill is the authority with which she combines and contrasts garish, vulgar, silly and absurd items of human manufacture with the pure elegance and power of nature."
My work has been exhibited nationally in many galleries and in museums such as the San Jose Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art, Contemporary Art Museum in Houston, Texas, Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston; internationally in Museums in France and six different Museums of Art in Japan. My work has also appeared in numerous publications.
