Stephanie Wright

Stephanie Wright earned her MFA at the University of Nebraska with a focus in Printmaking in the spring of 2017. She grew up in Louisiana and earned her BFA at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2014. "The subjects of my images are in performance for a human audience. These animals address broader human experience; certainly the notions of "human nature" and culture are themselves human constructs. Our ability to empathize with animals is tied to the perceptions that human society creates for them through fables, myths, religion, everyday interaction and animal husbandry. Our reaction to recognizable animal figures is affected by the meaning that we apply to them. We self-consciously work to define our existence through them. The animals in my work perform, unhappily for the viewer. Like hand puppets, they are stand-ins that allow me to talk about living through fear, social anxiety and disenchantment. The act of drawing becomes a reflexive coping mechanism. It's a way of illustrating in-the-moment feelings and reactions to everyday interactions that I am unable to rationalize I'm not talking about something logical, but something tangible; visceral. It manifests in its own form: an anxious being that exists beyond me--a whole other animal, justifying itself; refusing to be alone and all in my head. Like early paintings in caves or on stretched animal skins, bare impressions on paper are an unassuming method of human to human communication-- particularly when speaking through images of our animal peers to describe some aspect of ourselves, our society, where we fit in nature. The only truth that seems to reveal itself through this kind of communication is our self-awareness. It is a signal to others that we are here, living in the moment and we are not alone in our questioning."