
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
