STEPHANIE JAFFE WERNER
ARTIST STATEMENT

Stephanie Jaffe Werner is a mixed media artist who has produced private and public art for three decades, primarily focusing on two and three-dimensional works. Stephanie, who has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in glass and ceramics from the Tyler School of Art, combines her intrinsic ability and formal training with her passion and love of collectibles, antiques and found objects.

Along her life’s journey, Stephanie has hunted and collected objects from bygone eras from thrift shops and flea markets as inspiration and to be used in her pieces. These pieces often have a playful quality that produces an authentic emotional response of the viewer, causing the viewer to reflect on their own past.

Unconventional pairings of materials are a signature of Stephanie’s work. Oftentimes, this means transforming and repurposing objects she finds into fanciful arrangements and narratives. Using a keen sense of color and eclectic arrangements, Stephanie’s constructs works that are engaging on multiple levels, ranging from nostalgia to whimsy, with plenty of tongue in cheek frolic and humor.

Her focus of late has been a series of mosaic topiary sculptures created from painted ceramic tiles, and found objects. In her mosaic topiaries, she fashions sculptures around traditional topiary shapes, by embedding found figurines—especially children, pets, aristocrats at leisure, and other iconic images—along with handmade ceramic flowers, tiles, and pieces of antique china.