ARTIST STATEMENT

“It’s a paradox, trying to create a sense of space and movement, place and reflection, on a fixed, solid, flat, surface. These are formal concerns I pursue. It’s a process of arrangement and juxtaposition, often inspired by the evocative colors offered in nature and landscape. I add and subtract parts & pieces in an on-going conversation between just flat, and then not. Ultimately, I make a concerted effort to pare things down to an “essence”, leaving a quietness, maybe a reflective lingering, a place to visit. If I’m lucky…”

Bio:

Born in California, raised in Los Angeles, Steffani Bailey has been drawing and painting since childhood. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Otis Art Institute in 1974, and was a student of Charles White, and water-colorist, Keith Finch. After graduating, she spent several years working and exhibiting in California. In the early 90’s she became interested in the Clinical Art Therapy Program at Loyola Marymount University, where she received her Masters Degree, then working as an art therapist in a clinical setting, focusing on children and families. When an opportunity emerged to teach Art full-time in a classroom setting, Steffani immersed herself in the phenomenon of teaching, and as she taught she earned her Single Subject Teaching Credential in 2004.

After 12 years of bringing Art and the act of the creative practice to her young students, Steffani retired in 2009. In retirement she gradually found herself returning to a steady art-making discipline. As well as being inspired by the natural enviornment and its qualities of changing light, color, and texture, she’s also intrigued by the juxtapositions that are presented by these illusory elements in contrast to the reality of her materials and the made object… She presently pursues the act of translation into her own process.

Steffani resides in Los Angeles with her family and dogs.