Jean Stamsta: The Big Picture 

In her Monches, Wisconsin studio, and later in Hawaii, Jean Stamsta made wildly colorful and playful paintings and fiber sculptures. She was a pioneer in the fiber renaissance in the late 1970s and 1980s, creating tubular weaving techniques that contributed to freeing textile from the loom. However, fiber was only one of the many media she mastered. In the 1980s, Stamsta started using handmade paper, paint, and fiberglass to create her mythical creatures inspired by images on effigy mounds--more numerous in Wisconsin than anywhere else in the United States. Aerial views high above Wisconsin were facilitated by plane trips she enjoyed with her pilot son. Her imaginative landscapes and still-lifes also include exotic tropical scenes complete with erupting volcanoes and neon palm trees.

In 1974, Stamsta was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Craftsman Fellowship Grant. She went on to exhibit internationally in Europe and her work can be found in prestigious American collections such as the American Crafts Museum in New York, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Columbus, Ohio. In our current time of uncertainty, Stamsta's ebullient works remind us that the world is a big place in both space and time. Her bird's-eye views and evocations of those who dwelt in Wisconsin long ago help restore poetry to the challenging present.