STATEMENT

Stephanie Dowdy-Nava's imagery is created in a contemporary figurative style that uses plants, animals, objects, and human figures as symbols to address autobiographical and social issues. Her work is influenced by the vibrant culture, living environment, stunning geography, and natural wildlife of her upbringing and continued life experiences. Lush, tropical habitats and vast, desert landscapes are recurring visuals. Dynamic habitats, fleeting scenes, and compelling images evoke strange memories and communicate the urgency of capturing an experience, or an object's uniqueness, before the interpretation of it changes or the memory of it loses importance as time goes on.​

Stephanie explores key moments in her life and in the lives of loved one's to map her own ontogeny. Narrative settings, young subjects, and sentimental items both alive and inanimate depict moments of transition, honesty, and self-realization to piece together the story of an ongoing evolution and create visual memories and future insights. She is interested in how things came to be this way.  

BIO

Stephanie Dowdy-Nava is a practicing artist, educator, and arts administrator. She is the co-founder of the ART+BIO Collaborative, a nonprofit organization that fosters the integration of science, nature, and art through novel collaborations, research, public outreach, and education. As the Program Director for ART+BIO's Field Studies of Art+Nature she leads travel programs to Puerto Rico, the American Southwest, and India that take place several times throughout the year. As Adjunct Faculty, Stephanie has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in Art Education at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She also leads Professional Development workshops for JK-12th grade Art and Science teachers.

PROGRAMS

JUNGLE LIFE: Field Studies of Art+Nature in South India and Thailand, is a one-of-a-kind, ART, BIOLOGY and NATURE immersion experience that focuses on the diverse wildlife from the varied natural habitats of the Western Ghats, a biodiversity hotspot, teeming with wildlife found no where else on the planet, and on the tropical island of Koh Lon, Thailand​. 

ISLAND LIFE: Tropical Field Studies of Art+Nature in Puerto Rico, is an artistic exploration of diverse tropical wildlife and rainforest, mountain, beach and coastal environments.

DESERT LIFE: Field Studies of Art+Nature in the Southwest is a unique artistic journey through white sand dunes, black lava rock, cactus forests, underground caverns, and mountain landscapes of West Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.

Comparative Anatomy and the Visual Arts: An ART+BIO Collaborative Workshop for Educators is a professional development workshop that takes place at different locations throughout the year. The workshop introduces educators to creatively combining visual art and life sciences in the classroom to engage students in creative artmaking and deeper learning of advanced scientific concepts.