Stephanie Brody-Lederman

I want to show the poetry inherent in “ordinary life.” I wish to memorialize simple times when we are most present; - when we are mesmerized by the beauty of a blooming tree, a small patch of grass in a park or when we feel the connection of towns, strung  like a necklace of twinkling lights, along a Mediterranean coast-line.

I use simple images; trees, birds, water, sky, tables, domestic paraphernalia, and I edit and hone them ruthlessly, to reveal both graphic and psychological content.

Words are very much a part of my art making arsenal.  I distill them, play with them, and find double entendres that are both aural and visual. I often use words in a surrealist, non linear way.  Beckett, Pinter, Duras and Albee are the shoulders that I stand on.  New Wave cinema sets the stage for my work – Rohmer, Truffaut, Fellini et al. (In the seventies I lived near the Thalia movie theater in NYC, and was a frequent patron.) 

As for the surfaces of my work, I am interested in the peeling walls of ancient cities. I want to recreate the rich textures of these walls to depict the passage of time.  And most importantly, I never want to lose  “the mark of the hand,”  that very beautiful awkwardness of our common humanity.