Press

“. . . The art of Stephanie Dragon touches on conscious meaning beneath the surface in a conceptual rather than a literal way. In some of her works, light forces its way out from behind the cracks in a dark surface; in other pieces, the light falls on a flat plane whose fissures reveal the depths beneath. In either case, the careful manipulation of paint sets up a magnetic pull that involves the viewer in the process. Dragon works with the pull of gravity to get her surfaces to crack and flow. The process is very controlled right up to the point where she lets go and allows the painting to take over. ‘I start at the top and work down,’ she says. ‘building up many layers as I go. Sometimes the movement of the paint happens fast, or sometimes nothing happens for twenty minutes and then it will come together. It’s the sitting back after all the work and watching it happen that is so magical.’

“Dragon worked as a studio assistant for Kenneth Noland for several years in the late 1980s. During that time, she learned a great deal about methods, materials, and approach, and became especially interested in the properties of paint. ‘There are a lot of variables,’ she says. ‘Humidity, different colors and mediums, thickness and thinness, gloss and matte all affect the outcome.’

“By 1992, she was ready to move to Santa Fe and to concentrate on her own swiftly evolving art. Her distinctive style of today is the result of a creative incident. ‘I was playing with layers and transparencies,’ she recalls, ‘trying to get a reaction to repeat itself. At one point I covered the whole thing with white, then went out for an hour. When I came back, the paint had settled, and there was the image I had been working toward.’

“Stephanie Dragon continues to push the boundaries between the seen and the sensed, stretching the picture plane toward infinity. “I’ve always been driven,’ she says. ‘I feel an inner call to do this work.’ ”

- Stuart Ashman and Suzanne Deats, Abstract Art, pp. 236–241, Fresco Fine Art Publications LLC, Albuquerque NM, 2003 -
 

“. . . Even the darkest of Dragon’s pieces gives off a sense of light and hope, much as the artist herself does in person.”

- The Santa Fe New Mexican, August 30, 2002 -
 

“. . . You could just about drown in one of Stephanie Dragon’s paintings. And you probably wouldn’t mind either. Two of her acrylic-on-canvas pieces—100101 Shades of Blue and 100501 Shades of Blue—add a much-needed flash of color to the fifth annual Friends of Contemporary Art (FOCA) group show. . . . The show is a wide range of mediums but you can always hone in on those Shades of Blue that Dragon created. This FOCA exhibit may not have a body that’s easy to grip or define, but it’s got heart—and a lot of it’s blue.”

- The Santa Fe New Mexican, January 25, 2002 -
 

“. . . After 20 years of study and experimentation, Stephanie Dragon celebrates her work with her first solo show. Dragon spent five years working with the color field painter Kenneth Noland who was often championed by critic Clement Greenberg. Struck by the power and possibilities of acrylic painting, she developed a unique style of her own. Dragon applies layers of color and then allows time and gravity to do the rest—perhaps an over-simplification of a complex process. Her striking paintings speak for themselves, allowing the viewer to enter her multilayered color fields.”

- Santa Fe Reporter, August 17-25, 2001 -