Today we’d like to introduce you to Stacey Wexler.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Born with a crayon in my hand, I’ve always been interested in art. I had an intrinsic talent for making or drawing. Pulling back the wallpaper in my bedroom when I ran out of paper to keep drawing or creating dioramas for my dolls. I took as many art courses as I could during high school. Everything from ceramics to painting and continued with art education by getting my BFA in ceramics from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Then later moving out to California to receive my MFA in ceramic sculpture from Claremont Graduate University. After graduating, I worked in the film industry but maintained my own art practice. However, in 2008, I decided to become an art instructor at Los Angeles City College, which gave me the ability to focus more on my work and give back to the community. Although my own work has gone through several transitions, it is still focused on the figure. The work is mixed media which combines elements of Greek art or mythology along with cartoon elements such as Mr. Potato Head. I couple these disparate parts to speak about fitting in, gender issues or current events.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Although I was sure of my journey, it has had its moments of bumpiness. My hardest obstacle has been my own self-doubt. I had been very sure of myself during college and grad school, but once I was on my own trying to pay rent, it became harder to stay focused on my artwork. The first big bump came after my mother passed away and I lost motivation to make artwork. The second was my breakup with my partner which gave me the motivation to make art, but it was reactionary work as opposed to art that I wanted to keep working on. The pandemic caused me to reassess what I was doing and to look back in order to move forward. I began to look at what I had always enjoyed doing when I was little and why I kept doing art. So, I excavated different things from my past for inspiration and incorporated those elements into my work. The work feels more authentic because I see myself in each piece.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a mixed-media figurative artist. Although the work is mostly sculptural, I tend to do quick collages or drawings to work out ideas. The current work is primarily ceramics, but I tend to incorporate other mediums because I enjoy the tactile quality that other mediums bring to the piece. I’ve been working on a series of pieces that use historical references from Greek art and mythology in combination with toys and cartoons from my childhood (visualize a Greek bust with Mr. Potato Head parts). This merging of a refined human form with garish cartoon elements opens up the possibilities of broaching more serious topics without it feeling like a konk on the head. Allowing the viewer to feel a bit of playfulness before the issue hits them square in the face. I’m most known for my twisting of figures and concepts, giving the viewer another new aspect as they move around the form.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I believe all artists take a certain amount of risk. After all, we are putting a bit of ourselves on public display. As for my own risk taking, ceramics comes with an inherent amount of challenges. The clay can crack, warp or blow up (if you forget to put a pinhole in a hollow piece), forcing a reconsideration of the build. The risk comes with tackling new approaches to old ideas. I made ceramic figurative pieces based on Greek statues in graduate school. I would build the pieces using molds formed from different people to get a series of modular forms that could be stacked together like human figure building blocks. Today I’m still using the building block method but have incorporated disparate parts, making them seem a bit more precarious. I’m working on different oversized toy parts coupled with various-sized Greek sculpture and architecture parts to play around with the scale of each part trying to push the concept of balancing. I feel the risk is not only in pushing the limitation of the materials but exploring my own boundaries and what I’m willing to put forth on display.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: wexlersr
Image Credits
Photos by SR. Wexler
