Stephanie Sydney was born and raised in London, England. She moved to California with her family as a teenager and is currently living in Venice, California. While Stephanie was a painter from a very young age, because of her time constraints, she started exploring painting with a camera, first double and triple exposures in the camera, then mixed media pieces with photos and found elements and paint. She left her job as Art Studio manager at J. Walter Thompson in 1989 to make art and explore her process of double and triple exposures that was wowing all her friends and associates. She spent 5 years devoted to her art and received recognition and encouragement in the form of awards from galleries and curators around the country for work included in solo and group shows. She was selected for “Pick of the Week” in the LA Weekly by Peter Frank for two shows, one a solo show at the Brand Library and another group show at the Zero One Gallery on Melrose. But alas, out of money and needing to hold on to her house, she went back to work in the graphic design world, now on a computer. Again she got swamped with design work, but continued to photograph. With digital technology came new explorations of the transformative potential of imagery. A recent series of images called “Uncommon Pairings” involves merging very different subjects to spark a new dialogue. A self-portrait series grew out of the fascination of reflections and what we pass by without notice, those transient moments that can never return. Her interest is in the perpetual cycles of life and the relationships we have with our environment and the transient nature of all phenomenon. These issues and a drive to create a dialogue or a balance of the middle way between extremes inform her work.
Stephanie studied art at Santa Monica College and UCLA. She has taken dozens of classes at UCLA extension in art theory and practice, and photography. She studied with Lee Mullican, Laddie John Dill, David McDonald, Leonardo Bravo, Malaika Zweig, Don Bachardy, Chaz Bojorquez, Basil Langton, to name a few. Her early influences were Rauschenberg, Keifer, Pollack, Fellini, Wim Wenders, Duchamp. She traveled extensively through France, Italy, England, Scotland, Japan, U.S. Croatia and Greece to absorb the culture, study art and document it all through photography. At her day job in graphic design she has worked on movie posters and ads as well as packaging and publications. She feels very fortunate to have worked at outstanding, cutting edge design studios and advertising agencies in the Los Angeles area, where she has held a wide variety of jobs, as art director, designer, production artist, and illustrator. However, she is now devoting her time to her own work in her studio in Santa Monica.
biography
Stephanie Sydney was born and raised in London, England. She moved to California with her family as a teenager and is currently living in Venice, California. While Stephanie was a painter from a very young age, because of her time constraints, she started exploring painting with a camera, first double and triple exposures in the camera, then mixed media pieces with photos and found elements and paint. She left her job as Art Studio manager at J. Walter Thompson in 1989 to make art and explore her process of double and triple exposures that was wowing all her friends and associates. She spent 5 years devoted to her art and received recognition and encouragement in the form of awards from galleries and curators around the country for work included in solo and group shows. She was selected for “Pick of the Week” in the LA Weekly by Peter Frank for two shows, one a solo show at the Brand Library and another group show at the Zero One Gallery on Melrose. But alas, out of money and needing to hold on to her house, she went back to work in the graphic design world, now on a computer. Again she got swamped with design work, but continued to photograph. With digital technology came new explorations of the transformative potential of imagery. A recent series of images called “Uncommon Pairings” involves merging very different subjects to spark a new dialogue. A self-portrait series grew out of the fascination of reflections and what we pass by without notice, those transient moments that can never return. Her interest is in the perpetual cycles of life and the relationships we have with our environment and the transient nature of all phenomenon. These issues and a drive to create a dialogue or a balance of the middle way between extremes inform her work.
Stephanie studied art at Santa Monica College and UCLA. She has taken dozens of classes at UCLA extension in art theory and practice, and photography. She studied with Lee Mullican, Laddie John Dill, David McDonald, Leonardo Bravo, Malaika Zweig, Don Bachardy, Chaz Bojorquez, Basil Langton, to name a few. Her early influences were Rauschenberg, Keifer, Pollack, Fellini, Wim Wenders, Duchamp. She traveled extensively through France, Italy, England, Scotland, Japan, U.S. Croatia and Greece to absorb the culture, study art and document it all through photography. At her day job in graphic design she has worked on movie posters and ads as well as packaging and publications. She feels very fortunate to have worked at outstanding, cutting edge design studios and advertising agencies in the Los Angeles area, where she has held a wide variety of jobs, as art director, designer, production artist, and illustrator. However, she is now devoting her time to her own work in her studio in Santa Monica.