Stephanie Pearl rose to prominence in California, where she has lived her entire life, through a work that embodies the natural world and captures it with a fresh post-modern eye. While eclectic and varied with media choice, Pearl has blossomed into a formidable talent utilizing canvas and wood.

A native of Fresno, California, Pearl has had a bit of formal artistic training, but is primarily self-taught, not something one would surmise after viewing her work. Initially raised in Madera, California, a rural farming community—the heart of the central valley and home to several mammoth produce collectives—Pearl soon found herself restricted and claustrophobic. After graduating from high school in Madera, she moved to San Francisco in 1987. Like anyone with considerable ambition and a need to create, Pearl’s nomadic instincts allowed for an enlightening—an artistic and personal awakening of sorts.

Spending much of her time haunting museum floors and attending gallery openings, Stephanie Pearl focused on what she really felt a passion for—creation. This creative fervor allowed for a fresh commitment to art. Influenced by many, Pearl studied Picasso and Segal, Rauschenburg and Dali as one would a sports or movie star. Without any real formal education in art, Pearl willed herself to the throes of the artistic. In such an influential location and in such a significant time for art, Stephanie focused on her experiences and created bonds with like people. Not until her migration to Fresno in 1994 did she begin to take part in what was to be her future.

Initially, Pearl manipulated the three dimensional form, constructing collage and box assemblage. These story boxes, while helping to fuel Pearl’s focus, seemed restricted and unyielding. After about a year, she meandered toward other conventional mediums—wire sculpture and metals, but quickly gravitated toward canvass and wood surfaces; and has continued for over a decade.

Pearl studied English literature at California State University, Fresno and was awarded a Bachelor of Arts in English lit. It was at the university that she became involved with her first art show. Pearl is currently employed at CSUF and finds inspiration in the fresh talent and work that is displayed in the Conley Art Gallery on campus. In March 2005, Pearl was voted into the Fig Tree Gallery Co-op in Fresno—most likely the oldest cooperative contemporary gallery in California. After only a handful of months, Stephanie Pearl was nominated and voted president of the Gallery board directors.

Pearl has gathered inspiration through many, both home and abroad, but is now playing a somewhat different role as inspiration to others. Her work transcends the boundaries of “formal” contemporary art, as does her spirit parallel to nature.

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