Podcast

Intro: Hello Stephanie, thank you so much for visiting us here at Mayflower. We know you have travelled a long way and we feel incredibly lucky that you have joined us today. As you know, lots of our year groups have studied your wildfires and natural disasters collections in Art so we have lots of questions!

 

Q1: When we studied your work in Year 2,  we noticed that all of your collections are influenced by nature and wildlife. Why does this inspire you so much?

 

Q2: I love art and would like to be an artist when I am older. At what point did you decide you wanted to become an artist and take that leap to turn your creativity into your career?

 

Q3: We have learned about lots of local and national artists at Mayflower, including: Morag Thomson Merriman, Romero Britto, Terry Frost and Paul Klee. Which artists have inspired you in the past and currently inspire you now and why?

 

Q4: We have heard you are going to be studying your Masters in Art here in Plymouth. That is a long way from America. Why have you chosen to study in Plymouth? What do you hope to get from your Masters?

 

Q5: Chris from Kaya Gallery is a friend of Mayflower and inspires us with his enthusiasm for art and design. We love how he showcases local artists because it shows us we can have our own artwork exhibited in galleries too. Did you see any artwork that spoke to you while there? What does it feel like to have your work in an exhibition?

 

Q6: What has been your biggest achievement so far and why?

 

Q7: We know you love nature and wildlife which Plymouth and our local area is surrounded with. Have you been inspired to create any new art work since visiting Plymouth and can you tell us about it?

 

Q8: When I’m being creative, I feel really relaxed, especially when we have music on in class too. Our teachers tell us that Bob Ross said, “There’s no such thing as mistakes, just happy little accidents.”  Do you agree with him and what is your favourite thing about being an artist?

 

Q9: Do you have a favourite piece of art that you have created and why is it your favourite?

 

Q10: When I create my final piece for my project, I find it difficult to know when I have finished it because I always feel like there is more I can add. How do you decide when a piece of art is finished?

 

Q11: We noticed that you were commissioned to create a mural in Iowa. How did it feel working on such a large canvas compared to your usual artwork? How did you plan it on such a large scale?

 

Q12: Finally, do you have any top tips for us as artists?

 

Outro: Thank you so much for joining us today. It has been amazing meeting an artist who has inspired us and our friends. We hope you can join us again in the future and maybe work with us on some collaborative projects. Good luck with your Master’s degree. We would love to see what you create!

Bio

Stephanie Peters spent her early childhood living on an Arabian horse farm. She grew up running around open fields and raising animals, including her three goats. During her adolescent years, she lived in the Washington D.C. area, and took full advantage of the free art museums and galleries of the region. Inspired by the work of Robert Rauschenberg and Alexander Calder, she began painting and drawing.

She went on to complete a B.A. in Art History and Studio Art at The University of Arizona, in Tucson in May 2009. After graduating, she spent several years travelling and finding her artistic voice.

She has found inspiration in the natural world since childhood. She has travelled to interesting places to have first-hand encounters, like hiking with a herd of Desert Big Horn Sheep in Zion, UT, watching Greater Flamingos near the Camargue, France, or snorkelling with sharks in the Dominican Republic. These adventures regularly inspire new work she creates on location and in her studio.

Recently, her encounters with animals, especially urban wildlife, have inspired her to share the joy she experiences in soft pastel and other 2D mediums. These pastel paintings are meant to encourage people to experience the natural world and enjoy the creatures that share our backyards and beyond. This same kind of philosophy comes out in her other activities such as stamp designs and digital illustrations.

In addition to her interest in animals, she also finds inspiration in the landscape and through natural processes such as volcanic eruptions. Her personal experience with natural cataclysms has been a recurring theme in her abstract work. Her original paintings on natural disasters were a response to the increasing severity of these events over the past ten years, and society's reaction to them. Her new work takes a closer look at the changing Earth, through natural catastrophes and their role in ecosystems.

When Stephanie is not in her studio creating art or running her graphic and website design business, Speters Designs, she is travelling and finding something new to be inspired by.