2020

Stephanie Garmey has received individual artist’s grants from the Maryland State Arts Council in Crafts and Painting and the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Arts and Culture in Painting. Stephanie teaches in the Drawing and General Fine Arts Departments at the Maryland Institute College of Art, teaching Mixed Media Book Arts, Nature Drawing, and Cut Paper 2D to 3D. She received her MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Hoffberger School of Painting in 1995, where she studied with Grace Hartigan. Stephanie has an MA in Painting from Purdue University in Indiana and a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She lives and works in Baltimore, MD.

Pathways was on view at Hillyer on March 6 – 29, 2020.

Much of your work centers around meditations on nature. How did you become interested in natural habitats and how did you choose which animals from around the world to depict?

Growing up my backyard was Rock Creek Park in Maryland. I explored the woods and lake looking at natural plants and wildlife. As an adult, I began going camping, kayaking and taking hiking trips. My trips included the Eastern Shore in Maryland, Appalachian Trail, Cape Cod, Vermont, and Maine, as well as rural areas overseas in Ireland, Scotland, England, and France. Part of the pleasure in walking and sitting in nature is to slow down and learn to see and listen to what’s around you. I found that spending time in nature was my truth and my way to meditate.

As for choosing animals from around the world, I first go with what the animal looks like. Then, I research the animal to find out their location, habitat, behavior, size, and weight. I like watching documentaries on animals. For example, I saw a documentary on the savannah elephant and how the matriarch leads her herd under a canopy of stars at night to salt caves in Africa to eat salt. The matriarch knows to do this every few years and it has been passed down for thousands of years. Afterwards, I was inspired to make an 8-foot female elephant out of wood and reed. I made a whole nocturnal exhibition about Africa with the Matriarch being the center of the show.

For the exhibition at Hillyer, I wanted to open up the locations to be from around the world.

Your collection of natural objects and taxidermy is quite extensive and you work with various media such as cut paper, encaustics, book arts, and embroidery. Where do you find these materials and what is your process of choosing the material for your works?

I spent over 30 years as a painter. I would collect organic matter and taxidermy to draw and paint from. When I started teaching Nature Drawing, I began collecting more taxidermy for my class to work from. I keep this collection at Maryland Institute College of Art.

In 2008, I started working with cut paper and mixed media. I love taking workshops during the summer to learn new media and to be the student instead of the teacher. This is where I have learned how to make paper and explore encaustics, screen printing, etching, ceramics, book arts, cut paper, paper engineering, and embroidery. Some of the workshops have been at Penland School of Crafts, Women’s Studio Workshop, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, The Center for Book Arts, and Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill.

When I start an idea, I sketch it out and let the inspiration flow on paper. Then, I brainstorm on how I want to approach it. I still paint but now I have many more ways to consider how to make the work.

Your work in this exhibition examines the ways in which animals balance their ecosystems and explores how humans also affect this balance. What do you hope viewers take away from your work?

My work has always been about nature, plant life, and animals. What has changed is expanding my choice of medium. Also, more and more when I research the animals or places they live, I keep running into problems they are having. So I did not set out to only pick animals with problems in their environment. Sometimes the animals are thriving. I felt I could not ignore how the world is rapidly changing because of humans encroaching animals’ environments through cutting down their habitats or through excessive hunting and pollution.

When people come to my show, I hope they see the whimsy, curiosity, and love towards all things natural. I want to elevate the animals to greatness to celebrate the shear uniqueness of their existence in the world. Perhaps they will go home and read more about one of the animals and learn more about them.

Your husband, Quentin Moseley, is also an artist. What’s it like to both be working artists and teachers? Do you ever collaborate on artistic projects?

It has really worked out well for almost 40 years! When we have 8-hour days in separate studios, we never resent or ask “Why are you spending so much time on your art?”. We are both doing the same thing. We sometimes come together and visit each other’s studio but not all the time. It is good to know when to comment and when not to.

We both teach at The Maryland Institute College of Art in different departments. Quentin is in Printmaking and I am in Drawing and General Fine Arts. That environment for both of us has been rewarding in working with talented students and colleagues who have become friends and community throughout the years. We both like to rework our classes to have some new ideas every year. This can be fun and very creative coming up with projects to keep the students engaged as well as us.

As for collaborating, we have talked about doing some projects together in the future. We have both helped each other with each other’s projects. If Quentin has a large neon installation, I have helped him with installing them from time to time. Quentin is a great carpenter and has made all my platforms, wall shelves, and painting stretchers for my work. I ask for his expertise in helping me construct complicated structures like the Matriarch Elephant or a full size reed canoe.

You currently teach Mixed Media Book Arts, Nature Drawing, and Cut Paper at Maryland Institute College of Art, How has your experience working with students impacted your work and what advice would you give to students and aspiring artists?

Working with students can be very fluid and rich. After introducing Projects for Book Arts or Cut Paper, everyone starts brainstorming in their sketchbooks. Then, we come together and start talking about all the ideas and materials and content. Some of these projects are made in 2 weeks. My students amaze me with their talent, ideas, and craftsmanship. I remind myself to be like my students—to free up the flow of ideas, to not think twice, to be decisive and do it! In my Nature Drawing class, we do drawings outside at a farm, or create setups in class. I make sure my students have opportunities to create drawings from life and work with all sorts of media, from charcoal to watercolor. I am teaching them how to see—to really look at the light and shadow and the forms in front of them. It is exciting to see the students develop their drawings in a 6-hour class.

As for advice, I tell my students to stay curious and to keep learning no matter how old they get. I tell them EVERYONE has awful days of creativity where nothing is working and you have no idea what you are doing. Then, on the flip side there will be days that you are humming along and you’re in the thick of it and it feels effortless. It is important to create a community after school ends to look at each other’s work and exchange ideas. Also, carving out a literal space to make work no matter how small, as well as time carving out time in your schedule. Continue to visit museums, view local shows, and apply to grants, exhibitions, and residencies. Do not get discouraged if you are not accepted right away. Keep trying and expanding places to apply. There is nothing wrong in taking a break from applying to stuff. Sometimes one needs to shut out the world and just make the work.

Emily Campbell is a visual artist and educator working in Baltimore, MD. She holds an MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art and a BA in visual arts from Mercyhurst University. Previous solo and group exhibitions include those at the Institute of Contemporary Art (Baltimore, MD), Maryland Art Place (Baltimore, MD), St, Johns College (Annapolis, MD), Gallery CA (Baltimore, MD), Push Gallery (Asheville, NC), The Delaware Contemporary (Wilmington, DE), School 33 (Baltimore, MD), and Arlington Art Center (Arlington, VA). She has participated in residencies at Can Serrat (Barcelona, Spain), the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center (Nebraska City, NE), Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT), and Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild (Woodstock, NY). Campbell currently teaches at Maryland Institute College of Art and Anne Arundel Community College.

Outliers was on view at Hillyer on March 6 – 29, 2020.

Your exhibition centers around themes of dystopia and detachment. How did you become interested in these themes and why did you decide to focus on the experiences of “outliers”?

I initially was interested in the theme of detachment for formal reasons. My drawings and paintings use very uniform and deliberate lines, and everything is described with the same amount of detail. This creates a certain level of predictability even when there are uncontrollable and inexplicable actions among the figures—I am intrigued by this contradiction. Additionally, I often depict a group of people that are closely interacting with one another but there is a massive emotional distance at the same time. My work adopts the visual vocabulary of comics but due to the unsettling detachment it is more difficult to decipher the motives and psychology of the individuals.

I became interested in the theme of dystopia due to the inspiration I find in a range of sources, including sci fi, botanical illustration, ancient mythologies and historical imagery. The fusion of diverse subjects generally creates an unsettling hybridity to the character and landscapes, producing the dystopian vision. I decided to have the focus be on the experiences of “outliers” because I am fascinated with remote, precarious, and claustrophobic spaces and how these spaces could produce atypical psychology and detached behavior in their inhabitants.

How do you use landscape and scenery to convey the inner thoughts and desires of the figures you depict? What relationships are you exploring?

An example of landscape being used to convey the inner thoughts of a person would be in my painting called Reverie. In this work there are two stacked images, the image above depicts the edge of a sharp cliff with massive purple and white clouds in the background. The landscape is isolated, simultaneously alluring and dangerous. Below this is a portrait of a person with their eyes closed and head down facing, there are a pair of hands gently holding the face. The landscape could express either the silent dreams, wishes, or desires of the figure, and it’s ultimately for the viewer to decide the relationship.

You draw inspiration from Greek mythologies, sci-fi illustrations, and historical imagery to explore ritual and hedonism. Are there any specific narratives or characters you are drawn to or reference in your works?

I am interested in rituals and other events where usual hierarchies and norms are suspended. To provide an example, a historical event that I have recently referenced in my work is the military parade of Caesar on his official entry to Rome. Italian renaissance artist Andrea Mantegna recreated the elaborate procession and depicted soldiers, musicians, the spoils of war, exotic animals, and captives along with Caesar on a triumphal chariot—all featured to form an awe-inspiring depiction of the event. I am drawn to this historical event because of the range of human interactions, folly, and struggles that took place.

Your recent work incorporates 3D objects made of plaster and stoneware with your paintings and drawings. What made you decide on these forms and what is your process for creating them?

The vases are wheel thrown and decorated with underglaze while the other clay and plaster sculptures are hand built. Some of the sculptures were made out of curiosity to see what parts of my paintings—rocks, plants, etc. would look like as three dimensional objects. Additionally, the process of making the paintings is slow, they take me a long time to make and involve a lot of revisions. I enjoy working sculpturally because the process is more physical and I can often work through ideas faster.

Similar to the line work of my paintings—highly controlled, yet depicting inexplicable actions, I am attracted to the ordered symmetry and stability of the vases and place them with my paintings of precarious landscapes or interactions.

What are you currently working on and how do you hope your work evolves in the future?

I am plotting and planning new ideas for my paintings and sculptures. One of my new studio goals is to enlarge the scale of my work. I would also like to do more hand building with clay. I feel that I can be playful when I work with different media and push my ideas further into abstraction.