About Sesshin Art
Sesshin Art is a public gallery in Encinitas, CA founded by Stephanie Bell May.
Operating as a program of Generation One, a 501(c)(3) public charity, the gallery features rotating exhibits from local and international artists. Designed as a public forum to serve the community, Sesshin Art produces artist talks, and guided art experiences rooted in the practice of mindfulness. Participants are encouraged to tap into their unique creative source and explore solutions to common human challenges.
Stephanie Bell May, MFA
Through painting, living, and exploring how we experience life I have realized, that I am perpetually attracted and captivated by the balance between contradictions and counter parts. How seemingly polar forces and dualities are interconnected and give rise to each other, define each other, and only exist in relation to one another.
Bell May was born in Mexico City in 1973. Her interest in fine art began in the museums of Mexico City, where a rich history of early and mid-20th century artists with strong political motives included Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Tina Modotti and Rufino Tamayo.
These influences played out visually in her early work, as she completed a BA in Fine Arts at Pepperdine University. Bell May was awarded an accolade by Joseph Piasentin, named artist of her generation from Pepperdine University.
Later Bell May returned to Mexico City and received an MFA in Plastic Arts at Academia de San Carlos. A focus on naïve figuration with a bright, primarily red color pallet defined Bell May’s early work as she explored the female human body and its status as a commodity in Mexico’s history and beyond.
Following several years of public exhibition and recognition in and around Mexico City, Bell May returned to an intensely private studio practice for several years of artistic development. During this time, Bell May pursued a new visual result through black and white abstraction and paper mache sculptural figures.
She began using photo developers and acrylics in combination with her customary oil paint to pioneer new textures and mark-making possibilities, including fracturing and splintering of the paint on paper. The dark pallet and layers of medium scratched, drizzled and rubbed hint at a subtle but powerful rage underlying Bell May’s second phase of work. Issues of female equality and human rights concerns take forefront in Bell May’s latest work.
Artist's Statement
In my paintings I explore this paradoxical phenomena by using the sublimely complicated figure of man and woman, and simplifying it to a smooth continuous line. I use what seem like diametrically opposed forces such as light and dark, brilliant and morose colors, glossy and bristly textures, translucent and opaque surfaces, and integrate the lines of the body into an enigmatic harmony and cohesion of colors and textures.
Whether the medium be oil on wood, ink on paper, or chili spices and dirt, each piece is a tense dance between the death or the life of each painting. Sometimes I place dark opaque layers that seem to suffocate the life out of it. Then I will rub or unearth the underlying painting to chance upon a heartbeat. If there is a pulse, it’s a miracle worth investigating.
With the placement of each layer and or lines, I don’t seek to replace the previous, but rather integrate it to a perfect balance of ambiguity and clarity. It’s an amorphous journey of intuition that takes on a life of it’s own. And although I am the creator, I am not in complete control of the out come. I vie, gamble, and recover with each piece until an inexplicable magic is revealed to me; like an alchemist who has an accidental encounter with magic.
Art Events
Please see our event calendar to find an opportunity to join a Sesshin Art event.