top of page
PatStephens_Sunburst2.jpg

Pat Stephens

My sculptural work explores the relationship between materiality and the environment. Working with cardboard, I create sculptural forms that explore how objects can carry the traces of time and the human presence. Through cutting, assembling, and layering materials, I create work that exists between abstraction and architecture. Finished designs are then created in welded steel. I am interested in them as a physical record of experience, where they communicate ideas about time, place, and transformation.

I pay close attention to materials and their surroundings. I often collect discarded or reclaimed objects and incorporate them into new compositions. Wear and decolorization in the surface is part of the visual language of the work. Through experimentation, testing how materials respond to different methods of joining or balancing, each sculpture evolves gradually. By using throw-away materials in a different format, they are brought back to life.

Professional Associations

Art Jewelry Forum

Chicago Metal Arts Guild

Society of North American Goldsmiths

Sculpture International

Chicago Alliance of Visual Artists

Chicago Sculpture International

Education

MFA Sculpture, Minneapolis College of Art and Design (in process)

MA Communications, Media & Theatre, Northeastern Illinois University

BA Studio Art-Metals, Northeastern Illinois University

BS Communications, Northern Illinois University

Art Creative Discovery Recycle Re-Envisioned

bottom of page