About Phyllis Steven
Phyllis Stevens

June 1931 - November 2020

To learn more about her artwork and inquire about sales, please contact her daughter, Karen Stevens Fisher, see contact email.

From a cradle-board in the fields of Arkansas to a basket on the deck of a houseboat on the Mississippi, my mother and father took me to Chicago. Thereafter, most of my childhood was spent, growing up in Detroit. My mother and father met in art school in Chicago. My father returned from WWI gravely mentally ill, "shell shock," they called it then. Upon his return he led a small contingent of the Bonus Army in the march to Washington. I was carried as a baby on that march.

I grew up in a family of women, my mother, aunt and grandmother all playing a large role in my upbringing. On Saturdays my mother would take me to the Detroit Art Institute where I knew every corner and room by heart. I loved the ornate Italian fountain court with its impressive Diego Rivera murals. I had my favorite paintings which I would go to, namely an El Greco, a Rembrandt and a Sheeler. Mother introduced me and encouraged me in any and all artistic endeavors, and I am eternally grateful for the exposure she gave me to so many disciplines, from the impressionists to the Bauhaus school.

Now looking back on decades of living, I see I have always been involved in something connected to the arts. Everything, from shadow puppet productions I did for CBS and others, to stage sets and lighting in Off Broadway theaters in New York, to dance performances and puppet productions in college. There was a long, long stretch in the advertising and publishing businesses where I free- lanced full time in New York city (commercial work being necessary to support myself and my daughter). There was a bit of film work and classes at the Art Students League and the Academy of Realist Art, as well as various classes and workshops over the years.

I seem to have an innate drive to interpret the life around me visually. I want to see it with as many eyes as possible. When I started working more seriously with art work I worked only in black and white. I was in awe of color. With time I started using color. Colors and their use are paramount to me now.

As I have been putting this collection of some of my work together I look back over the years. Now that I've retired from the work force, I can luxuriate with the time to pursue farther, the fascination I feel for exploring what I see.

Memberships:

Salmagundi Club
Triangle Weavers Guild
Graphic Artists Guild
PAINT (Plein Air in the Triangle)
WGAE (Writers Guild of America East)

Contact: KarenStevensFisher@icloud.com

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© Phyllis Stevens. Please do not use or reproduce without written permission.