We were lucky to catch up with Stephanie Revennaugh recently and have shared our conversation below.
Stephanie, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
The mixed media series of cast glass and steel works have been the most meaningful project. While I smoothly glided into bronze work as if guided by the hand of fate, cast glass has been a more intentional and a far more challenging project. Casting glass, distinct from blown glass, with the detail and size I want to work in is not as common as bronze casting. The outcomes are not as certain and the risks higher. Consistent production of the works has been very frustrating. However, the results are more unique and communicate my interest in paradox and explorations in contrast of yin and yang, the mechanical and organic, the body and soul, the numinous and the mundane. In this work I am shaping the form and spirit of animals with disparate materials to find a flow that harmonizes and unites differences. This speaks to the challenges of our times in an increasingly polarized world.
Stephanie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am an artist. While most notably known for equine sculpture, my career began as a painter. A practice I very much enjoy and am increasingly bringing back into my work. From childhood I was fascinated, even obsessed with horses. When I wasn’t around them I was drawing or painting them. While I was developing my eye for capturing form, It was always connecting with horses that was my focus over the art itself. Those early years of self guided study and long days riding bareback in the forested hills of Ohio allowed me to understand equine anatomy, not with academic labels, but rather in an intuitive and felt sense. It was the horse itself who taught me their structure and being.
While I occasionally flirted with the idea of an art career, It wasn’t until age 35 while managing a dressage barn in Evergreen, CO, that I made a decision to give it my all. After a year studying painting locally, I had the opportunity to study in Aix-en-Provence, France at the Marchutz School. I jumped with both feet into life as an artist with no safety net. Leaving the security of a job I loved and a home surrounded by horses, “burning the ships” so there was only one way forward. There was no plan B. This commitment, while daunting and honestly quite stressful, is what made me figure out how to become a successful artist. A journey of discovery that each artist must uniquely navigate.
Two years later, after my first solo show as a painter, I followed my curiosity to an equine sculpture workshop at Scottsdale Artist School in AZ. I instantly felt modeling form with clay to be my native expression. Coming back to the equine motif electrified me in a way still life and landscape painting had not. I immediately knew this was my path forward. I followed the instructor, Rod Zullo, to Montana for a 3 day sculpture workshop and was captivated by “The Last Best Place”. I found my home and my work in Sweet Grass county, in the shadow of the Crazy Mountains. My only companions and my new teachers were two rescued off the track Thoroughbreds who were retired on the ranch. My models stood outside the window of my living room come studio daily as I diligently created my first body of work in sculpture.
While my vision from the start was to produce both 2D & 3D work, it was apparent that my sculpture had a spirit and vitality beyond my paintings. When I looked out at the sea of amazing painters in the world, it was clear to me I could build my name much quicker with sculpture. Though it was the initial study of painting that guided my treatment of clay in a painterly way. An impressionistic effect that conveys a unique style and élan vital that resonates with many. The resources it takes to produce bronze works was a barrier. I saw it as an advantage since there aren’t as many people working in this medium, and even fewer women working as sculptors. I moved forward on a shoestring budget with support from my family and a mountain of faith. Again, I dove in with all my heart. Within a couple of years I was winning national and international awards and receiving invitations to galleries and museum shows. My work was equally captivating to art collectors and those who had never purchased art. Horse people, a tough crowd when it comes to the nuance of all things equine, remarked at how well I understand anatomy. Always a moment filled with honor for me. Non horse people were moved by the work in a way that transcends the subject. It is the most rewarding experience to hear how something I created from my heart and soul and with my hands, stirs the heart of another.
Have you ever had to pivot?
The biggest pivot in my life and career came in 2019. My art career had grown at a satisfying trajectory, life was exciting and full and I had secured a darling home and a horse who I was able to compete in eventing with (a horse triathlon which includes dressage and 2 phases of jumping). By 2018 I was doing art shows from Miami to California, and Chicago to Arizona. In the Spring of 2019 I hit total burnout of mind, heart and body. A full year before the rest of the world joined me in staying home, I had to stop everything to find my center. The creative well was completely dry. I decided to take a year off to recalibrate, which unexpectedly turned into 5 years of deep introspection. I was aware I had to sort myself out to move forward in a meaningful and sustainable way, I had no idea it would take so long or be so incredible through. I surrendered to the process, yet the more I unwound myself the more distant ever coming back to a thriving art career felt. It seemed there was no choice in the matter of undoing to move forward, but occasionally fear and doubt would creep in. I thought I might lose all that I had built over the years of dedication to my craft, but I had awareness of a need for a new perspective and a massive shifting of my center of gravity. I still participated in a few shows and even found more gallery representation, but my focus was primarily physical and mental and emotional health.
Through this dark night, a deeper understanding of why I was creating what I was creating in my work was a nagging question. I know my work speaks in a silent language, but what is it I really want to say? What is worth saying? What is it that horses and the natural world are teaching me, teaching us? What is my work saying about me and to me? How can I relate this existential unwinding to what I do to sustain myself in this life and how is it relevant to the greater collective? Through physical healing I’ve become more attuned to my body. Through emotional healing, I’ve become more attuned to my heart. Through conscious awareness I am learning to integrate and align the body, heart and mind. I have begun to understand my operating system, and it is not dissimilar to the ways of the horse, attuned to the subtle energies in its environment and congruent in its emotions and actions. What I’m learning is to listen to the body’s wisdom and prioritize a state of being before doing. What I discovered is the deep reason I have been more comfortable with horses, animals and nature is their congruence which is a contrast to many human interactions which are often incongruent. This has enlightened and aided my way of being in human relationships. What has emerged is a deeper respect for horses and a new curiosity in horse and human psychology and study of the human figure through art. I have begun working from a live model, drawing and sculpting the figure. For now, these works are in development, but I excitedly anticipate bringing the human form into my oeuvre and having a meaningful story to tell.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding part is hearing how someone else experiences my work, how it moves something in them or evokes a memory that connects them to something I made. It is interesting to learn what resonates from another’s perspective. What I am most grateful for is the freedom being an artist has given me to build a life that I love.
Contact Info:
- Website: StephanieRevennaughFineArt.com
- Instagram: @srevennaugh
- Facebook: @stephanierevennaughfineart
Image Credits
professional images by Audrey Hall Photography