Stephanie Schulte, a 23 year old Australian art student, is in the midst of completing her Doctorate of Visual Arts, recently graduating with First Class Honours from a Bachelor of Visual Media, specializing in Fine Art at Griffith University on the Gold Coast.

 

It is exciting for me to appropriate a craft as traditional as needlework to not only convey modern issues and concepts but to recreate or re-represent the human form - all of my works have a deep seated connection to the body.  Embroidery and sewing is an extremely personal thing to do. and a lot of myself has gone into each work. The appeal of sewing for me as an artist not only lies in the fact that exploration of oneself can be achieved but also revolves around the fragmentation, ingenuity, textural richness and refinement of the stitch and thread creating beauty through intricate lines.

 

My work is  very much hands-on / process orientated and sewing fits nicely into my need for ‘obsessive’ art making.  ‘Obsessive’ is a fitting word to describe my artworks as I employ labour-intensive, time consuming and meticulous art making methods in all my creations with each piece taking weeks to produce.  My own art incorporates such elements that illustrate not only the artist as an individual but art as an individual’s expression. 

 

 It is my intention to materialize my re-occurring perceptions, feelings, or thoughts into a visual design, in which my inner experience of the world is externalized visually as a number of intricate patterns.  Despite my different concepts, aesthetics, materials and techniques, all my works reveal obsessive pattern-making.