Contemporary surreal, visionary and pop surreal art
Deborah Stevenson was born in Washington, DC. She grew up in Tokyo, went to high school in Baltimore, and got her BA from Sarah Lawrence College in New York. She lived for many years on the West Coast, and returned to the East Coast, where she lived in Brooklyn, NYC until 2015, when she relocated to the coastal town of Belfast, Maine.
My first medium is oil, and I have been a painter for nearly 30 years. I began composing collage pieces in earnest 5 years ago, working with material in magazines, books, newspapers, etc. My influences include the pioneer collage/surreal artists: Braque, Ernst, Hannah Hoch, Joseph Cornell, Magritte, to name a few, as well as the German Expressionists in all media. Other influences in visual media include masters in film and photography, both contemporary and classical
A life-long interest in Eastern philosophy and Jungian psychology have contributed to my fascination with allegory and symbology. Themes that recur in my work express metaphorically my exploration of concepts of power, beauty, the Feminine, and mysterious archetypal conjunctions.
The work arises in an ‘automatic’ way; I do not set out with an objective or goal in my mind when I sit down to make something. The images compose themselves spontaneously as I mix and move the masses of paper around on the table in front of me. I feel as though my eyes and hands facilitate the ‘arrival’ of the pictures that I make. More than anything else, the process requires of me that I pay attention, and to be in a receptive state, so as to be ready to capture the dialogue.
This is a Guest Post by Dr. Strangelove on the psychedelic, visionary artwork of Andrew Herndon (Wahndur).
Andrew Herndon makes psychedelic, surreal, visionary collage using digital media.
Herndon’s work questions the meaning of our inner lives by visualizing our psychological landscapes through the metaphor of external exploration.
While we dream of adventure and exploring the unknown, our lives are the dreams the universe is having.
For Herndon, our internal landscapes flow into pure abstraction and color.
Foreground, background, and landscape blend into color and visual sensation.
By merging several seemingly incompatible worlds into a new universe, a sense of awe emerges.
In Herndon’s art, an unsettling tranquil poetry straddles the edge of the abyss–where space becomes time and language becomes image.
society6.com/andrewherndon
wahndur.tumblr.com
instagram.com/wahndur
