STACY KOFFMAN
Shelters of the Mind
As I began my endeavor to create works for this exhibition, I immediately searched through sketchbooks from my trip to Madrid and Cantabria in 2005. In Madrid, I spent several hours viewing the sketches and final painting of Gernika by Picasso. This experience moved me beyond words. In Northern Spain, I visited several caves in search of prehistoric art. This too, left a very strong impact on my life that I will never forget. The primitive qualities of these works relate directly to my own imagery and the intuitive processes I use to create.
I continued to think about the connections between these experiences in Spain and how I might create new imagery from it. The cross-section of the karsts and the landscape format quickly came to the forefront. My original inspiration came from two particular images of the Grotta Gigante in Italy and the Sotano de las Golondrinas from Mexico. For me, these images resemble continents, maps, and passages, a metaphor for my recent and future travels abroad. The idea of “shelter” in combination with the karsts led me to create a direct visual connection with the addition of houses at the entrance into the caves. The ladder imagery was the last point of the process, scratching through the surface to build connections within the space presented.
As I continue my research and travels, I always return home to “my shelter”. But I also feel we all carry a shelter within us that allows us the freedom to explore and cultivate stronger understandings of all cultures and peoples. We have to remain open to change and hope and the belief that we as human beings are capable of deeper connections and understandings of each other. It is my hope that these images provide the viewer a moment of contemplation to delve deeper into their own “shelters of the mind” and find the ability to explore beyond it.
As I began my endeavor to create works for this exhibition, I immediately searched through sketchbooks from my trip to Madrid and Cantabria in 2005. In Madrid, I spent several hours viewing the sketches and final painting of Gernika by Picasso. This experience moved me beyond words. In Northern Spain, I visited several caves in search of prehistoric art. This too, left a very strong impact on my life that I will never forget. The primitive qualities of these works relate directly to my own imagery and the intuitive processes I use to create.
I continued to think about the connections between these experiences in Spain and how I might create new imagery from it. The cross-section of the karsts and the landscape format quickly came to the forefront. My original inspiration came from two particular images of the Grotta Gigante in Italy and the Sotano de las Golondrinas from Mexico. For me, these images resemble continents, maps, and passages, a metaphor for my recent and future travels abroad. The idea of “shelter” in combination with the karsts led me to create a direct visual connection with the addition of houses at the entrance into the caves. The ladder imagery was the last point of the process, scratching through the surface to build connections within the space presented.
As I continue my research and travels, I always return home to “my shelter”. But I also feel we all carry a shelter within us that allows us the freedom to explore and cultivate stronger understandings of all cultures and peoples. We have to remain open to change and hope and the belief that we as human beings are capable of deeper connections and understandings of each other. It is my hope that these images provide the viewer a moment of contemplation to delve deeper into their own “shelters of the mind” and find the ability to explore beyond it.
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