The seemingly endless variety of shape, texture and color found in botanical forms is what Stacey returns to again and again as a source for her work. Her obsession with plants started while growing up in the lush climate of the San Francisco Bay Area. The day she learned how to do a contour drawing of a rose was life changing. The approach taught her how to see order in the chaos of the petals: an endeavor that still holds her interest to this day. Stacey studied art on both the east and west coasts, earning her BFA from the Boston Museum School/Tufts and her MFA from the University of California, Davis. Her paintings and drawings have been exhibited at the Prince Street Gallery (NYC), Crocker Museum, Santa Rosa Museum of Art, Kirkland Art Center (Kirkland, WA), Richard L. Nelson Gallery (UC Davis) and University of Nevada (Reno).
Led by simple forms and a minimal palette, a drawing starts with direct observation of a plant, looking and drawing until a shape emerges that feels just right. The way pigment and water flow on paper is another vital element of Stacey’s process; she is searching for the balance between control and accident. Instead of a literal representation of nature, her work aims to convey the essence or mood of a botanical specimen.
