Opening and Artists Reception

June 14th 6-8pm 

A Boston born artist, Steph Koufman has divided her time between the Greater Boston area and Cape Cod.  A lifelong athlete, Steph was a  national field hockey player and currently plays kayak polo for the New England Kayak polo team. Koufman has been published in Poetry from Sojourner: A Feminist Anthology. Recently the artist received third place in the Maud Morgan Arts and the Chandler Gallerys  “2012 Small Works Salon 2D” exhibition which was juried by Victoria Munroe of  Victoria Munroe Fine Arts.  Koufman’s wood block prints were included in the Somerville Museums “Art of Compassion” exhibition.  

Artist Statement

I'm a self-taught visual artist, published poet and a lifelong athlete.  When I started painting at the age of 14, it was as if I were speaking for the first time. My life is shaped by my love of art and movement.  My process combines these elements. The energy in my painting strokes, sanding, scratching and use of color are the conversation that maintain my connection with the painting until it’s finished.  My work is deeply textured, using paint, furniture dyes, my woodcuts, construction mediums, wax and collage.

I have painted a range of series’ over the last two years including, "Truro Cape Cod Oceans", "Doors and Windows","Houses and Keys'', "People in Motion" and "22 Seconds; A Paintings Beginning". Examples from each of these series are included in this exhibition.

The ocean is the core of my work; it informs all the other work that I do. I have been drawing, painting, sculpting, and using wax to create the ocean I'm so familiar with.  Created over the past two years, the “Doors and Windows” series reflects my thoughts on being open to possibility as well as the formal relationship of color, shape and perspective, creating greater illusion of depth on the canvas.

The “Houses and Keys” paintings followed the “Doors and Windows” series. I began using greater relief on the surface, and experimenting with other materials. The keys used in the works are actual keys to doors and locks in my past. In the “Waking: The Human Figure” paintings,  the works portray a period of movement and attainment of inner peace and being human. They stem from my learning of connectivity as it relates to the human figure. In the series “22 Seconds: A Painting's Beginning” I explore the idea of how long it takes to conceive a painting, to register a scene, an event, a moment.  For me, 22 seconds and then to the studio where it may take weeks to fully execute the idea into a finished work. In these pieces, I use color, depth and layering in an active way, using broad gestural movement in their creation.

All the series relate to the broader subject of connectivity, between myself and the outer world. Through painting I emerge from an internal experience to an external one. I use all five senses in creating my work, in a synesthetic way that brings all the senses to bear upon the result.”