:: Stefanie Rocknak

:: work

View Samples

:: contact

steffrocknak@yahoo.com

:: artist's statement

Although I was born and raised in the United States, there is no question that my sculpture has been significantly influenced by my trips to Europe. In fact, having been trained as a painter, I may not have started sculpting had it not been for the semester I spent in Rome in 1987—or at the very least, it may have taken me longer to realize that I prefer three dimensions over two. While there, I was especially impressed by traditional marble sculpture, particularly, the work done by three classical giants: Michelangelo, Dontatello and Bernini; never once entertaining the (currently popular) idea that because their work is so popular, particularly with the masses, that it must be superficial, trivial. So, quite content with the vulgar appeal of representational sculpture, I returned to the U.S. and began working in wood, which was the only medium available to me. But in the back of my mind, I was certain that I would eventually work in some kind of stone. However, over the next few years, I grew quite attached to the warmth and unpredictability of the wood—I was hooked.

This shouldn’t surprise me since I have been around woodworkers for as long as I can remember—while growing up, my mother meticulously refinished countless pieces of antique furniture and for a while, my father worked as a professional carpenter (as well as an art teacher). My grandfather also had a wood shop at his boat yard (Rocknak’s Yacht Basin) in Forked River, New Jersey. In between swinging on the travel lift and sniffing around the docks, my brothers and I would sneak into his shop and create giant piles of saw dust and then blow them up with a bike pump, volcano style. My brother Russ still has the wood robot that he made during this time. And after my family moved to Maine in 1972, I was fortunate enough to get to know Ted Hanks, a master bird-carver. I especially remember picking up a life-size body of one his birds before the wings were attached and thinking, how did he do this?

My work has been shown across the United States as well as in Berlin, Germany. I have also been fortunate enough to have my work featured in multiple national and international publications, including Arts and Antiques, Sculptural Pursuit, Craft Arts International, ROJO and Aesthetica.