Things aren’t how they used to be and they never were
Things aren’t how they used to be and they never were explores nostalgia with a sense of self- awareness; longing for a way things used to be, referring to a reality that has never existed.
Sentimentality, a perception often embellished by emotion and desire, and the subjective distortion of recollected images influence Stellman’s work, a series of discordant spaces. These spaces are fragmented and held within objects, colliding and drawing visual connections between subjects that exist quite independently. The elements converge and repeat, echoing the repetitive and ritualistic nature of life through non-linear narratives.
Her series of 10 monochromatic monotypes serve as isolated explorations that inform the paintings. The fast pace and non-reproducible nature of this printmaking process facilitate the creation of intimate spaces predicated on a fleeting moment or image. These spaces are manipulated and distorted by repeatedly layering images, at times to a point of abstraction.
In opposition to the quick pace of the monotypes are paintings that serve to reproduce imagery to a point of exhaustion, exploring its form to an unrecognizable extent. Stellman’s work considers the language of outdated advertisements and awkward attempts to elicit feelings of familiarity. Colliding with the obsolete marketing language are collections of captured and remembered images, an accumulation of experiences and passing thoughts, some with inherent nostalgic connotations, others with a sense of domesticity and routine. Overlapping and running into each other, these anachronistic elements serve to fragment, contain, and dictate the illogical space that they occupy.