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Stephanie Peters spent her early childhood living on an Arabian horse farm. She grew up running around open fields and raising animals, including her three goats. During her adolescent years, she lived in the Washington D.C. area, and took full advantage of the free art museums and galleries of the region. Inspired by the work of Robert Rauschenberg and Alexander Calder, she began painting and drawing.
She went on to complete a B.A. in Art History and Studio Art at The University of Arizona, in Tucson in May 2009. After graduating, she spent several years traveling and finding her artistic voice. Peters has found inspiration in the natural world since childhood. She has traveled to interesting places to have firsthand encounters like hiking with a herd of Desert Big Horn Sheep in Zion, UT, watching Greater Flamingos near the Camargue, France, or snorkeling with sharks in the Dominican Republic. These adventures regularly inspire new work she creates on location and in her studio. Recently, her encounters with animals, especially urban wildlife, have inspired her to share the joy she experiences, in soft pastel and other 2D mediums. These pastel paintings are meant to encourage people to experience the natural world and enjoy the creatures that share our backyards and beyond. This same kind of philosophy comes out in her other activities such as stamp designs and digital illustrations. In addition to her interest in animals, she also finds inspiration in the landscape and through natural processes such as volcanic eruptions. Her personal experience with natural cataclysms has been a recurring theme in her abstract work. Her original paintings on natural disasters were a response to the increasing severity of these events over the past ten years, and societies reaction to them. Her new work takes a closer look at the changing Earth, through natural catastrophes and their role in ecosystems. In 2013, she was juried into Verde Valley Land Preservation’s ‘A River Runs Thru Us’ traveling art project that brought awareness to the Verde River. Her series on Natural Disasters was featured in the 2013F issue of Brand, an international art and design magazine, and the Natural Hazard Observer (2015). She was invited to be a guest speaker for Yavapai College’s OLLI Inside Creativity, and in 2014, she was invited to speak on an artist panel at Menlo College, California. Her work was featured in articles for Prescott Kudos (January 2015), the Village View Sedona (April 2015), and MISC Magazine (Fall 2015.) In July 2015, she spoke on a panel at the Natural Hazard Conference, hosted by the University of Colorado, for her series about Natural Disasters. In October 2015, she was the artist of the month for the Powell Museum, in Page, AZ. She has taken part in juried exhibitions throughout the United States, and recently, her wild fire series was featured in the Maricopa Audubon Fall 2017 Wren*dition. Her work is in private collections worldwide. When Stephanie is not in her studio creating art or running her graphic and website design business, Starlight Marketing, she is traveling and finding something new to be inspired by. |
Artist Statement:
My work uses mixed media methods to reveal the unexpected with shapes, textures, and colors, by combining abstract and traditional styles. I explore ways to break the boundaries of a two-dimensional surface by using primarily acrylic paint, ink, fabric, string, charcoal, and paper. Using a variety of techniques, I am able to bring imagination, energy, theory, and love into form.
My inspiration comes from my encounters with wildlife and my relationship to the shifting future through science (climate change, natural hazards, etc.) and ideas (religion, politics, opinion, etc.) I am interested in illustrating how society reacts and connects with the ever-changing planet, through a nature or nurture perspective. The result creates a visual conversation that invites the viewer’s attention inward.
The paintings I am currently working on are about the changing earth, and influenced by the political interpretations of scientific research on geophysical hazards. With a loose abstract-traditional style, I am visually documenting recent significant natural cataclysms from an environmental perspective. The work also depicts our understanding of natural hazards across time and culture. As legend and science merge, the paintings build a sense of beauty that can be found inside all of apparent chaos that makes up our current perspective of the changing earth.
All of my work is my way of telling a story in hopes to awaken the imagination and creativity inside each of us. My work engages the audience on many levels and encourages viewers to look inward and find something within themselves – inspiration, conversation, or a smile. Encouraged by the natural world around me, my art is bold, colorful, fearless but approachable and aesthetically pleasing.
My inspiration comes from my encounters with wildlife and my relationship to the shifting future through science (climate change, natural hazards, etc.) and ideas (religion, politics, opinion, etc.) I am interested in illustrating how society reacts and connects with the ever-changing planet, through a nature or nurture perspective. The result creates a visual conversation that invites the viewer’s attention inward.
The paintings I am currently working on are about the changing earth, and influenced by the political interpretations of scientific research on geophysical hazards. With a loose abstract-traditional style, I am visually documenting recent significant natural cataclysms from an environmental perspective. The work also depicts our understanding of natural hazards across time and culture. As legend and science merge, the paintings build a sense of beauty that can be found inside all of apparent chaos that makes up our current perspective of the changing earth.
All of my work is my way of telling a story in hopes to awaken the imagination and creativity inside each of us. My work engages the audience on many levels and encourages viewers to look inward and find something within themselves – inspiration, conversation, or a smile. Encouraged by the natural world around me, my art is bold, colorful, fearless but approachable and aesthetically pleasing.
For abstract, I paint from memory - for me to truly share my experience,
it comes from painting a special memory of that experience.
it comes from painting a special memory of that experience.
The subject of my work is not about what the eye can see, that is the point of departure.
Instead, my work gives form to what the spirit experiences.
Instead, my work gives form to what the spirit experiences.
In the Press - selected
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"Disaster Art" BranD Magazine, issue: Reborn 2013F
"Earth's Flow: Peters opens solo show at White Hills Gallery" Kudos, Verde News, January 2014 http://kudosaz.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=39307
"Camp Verde: Flavors of the Verde Valley" Your West Valley, February 2014 http://www.yourwestvalley.com/travel/worth_the_trip/article_89c59740-9414-11e3-860b-0019bb2963f4.html
"On Her Own: White Hills director has first solo exhibit" Camp Verde Bugle, February 2014 http://cvbugle.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=41330&SectionID=1&SubSectionID=991&S=1
"Gallery Focus: Stephanie Peters - contemplating beauty of earth in art" Prescott Kudos, December 2014.
https://www.dcourier.com/news/2014/dec/20/gallery-focus-stephanie-peters-contemplating-beau/ "Illustrating Literature Exhibit At Sedona Library VOC Branch," Sedona.biz, March 2015. http://www.sedona.biz/news-from-sedona/sedona-public-library/illustrating-literature-exhibit-at-sedona-public-library-voc-branch/
"Stephanie Peters - Healing after Disaster"
Natural Hazard Observer, July - August 2015. https://hazards.colorado.edu/article/stephanie-peters-healing-after-disaster "Artist Spotlight" Crisis Issue, Misc Magazine, Fall 2015
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Selected previous events and art projects:
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Selected Exhibits (Solo exhibit in Green):
- 2021 Pastel Society of Colorado Mile High International Pastel Exhibition, May - June 2021
- 2021 Arizona Pastel National Spring Show, Spring 2021
- 107th Annual Allied Artists Exhibition, 2020
- Flock Together, Nemacolin Woodlands Resort Gallery, PA, Summer 2020
- The Art of Resilience, World Bank Online Exhibit, Fall 2019
- Plantation Wildlife Arts Festival, Thomasville, GA, November 2019
- Spirits of the Forest Solo Exhibit, Widlund Gallery at Tannery Pond Center, April 2019
- Escaping the Madness, Grotto Gallery, Tempe, AZ, 10/17 - 1/18
- Wildfires & Volcanic Eruptions, Headlines 2000 Studio, Flagstaff, AZ, May – September 2016
- All Art AZ Art Intersection, Gilbert, AZ, 5/30-7/15/17
- Art & Science, Whitewater Art Gallery, Indiana East University, Richmond, IN, 3/16-5/16
- Seasons & Cycles, Herberger Theater, Phoenix, AZ, 10/15 – 1/16
- Art and Science, The Manheim Gallery, Cottonwood, AZ
- Artist of the Month: Stephanie Peters Wild Fires, Powell Museum, Page, AZ, 10/15
- Natural Disaster Paintings, Natural Hazard Conference, Broomfield, Colorado – 7/15
- Story Tellers, Connections Café, Tempe Library, AZ, 12/14 –4/15
- Illustrating Literature: North Valley Regional Library, Anthem, AZ (11/14); Village of Oak Creek Library, Sedona, AZ (3/15 – 5/15); Day-Riverside Branch, Salt Lake City Public Library, Salt Lake City, UT (8/15 - 9/15)
- Selected Natural Disasters & Drawings on Book Pages at Prescott Valley Public Library, AZ (6/14-7/14)
- 85 years, 85 artists, Bowman Library, Menlo College, Atherton CA
- ASU Downtown Campus fall exhibit: Mapping: Movement and Memory, Fall 2013, Tempe, AZ
- Verde Artist Challenge traveling exhibit: “A River Runs Thru Us”, began at Manheim Gallery, Cottonwood, 7/13 – Camp Verde, Clarkdale, Phoenix, Scottsdale - ending at Raven Café, Prescott, AZ, 5/14
all pictures taken of me on this page are by Neil Rizos.
