Bio
Wendy grew up in 1960s California. At a young age she loved music and art, dance, playing guitar and piano, singing folk songs and painting watercolors.
Early experiences with color: At age four, she spilled black paint on her brother's orange carpet. An art student at that time, over the years he would talk to her about Kandinsky, Klee and Mondrian - instilling an early inclination toward non-objective painting. Sixteen years her senior, Peter is her biggest influence
Then, an art form caught hold of her in the 1980s and became a main focus for many years - Indian dance.
In 1980, Wendy moved to Fairfield Iowa to be part of the TM community there. Meditating almost fifty years by now, the meditation practice deepened her desire to express the inner silence and flow through color and movement. In 1982 a Kathak dancer performed at MIU (Maharishi International University) and by 1986 Wendy was studying the tradition.
ART SCHOOL: 25 years of North Indian Classical Dance. Calligraphy in the air.
“What I LOVE about Indian dance especially, is the absolute saturation of the senses with beauty, as an entryway into the total experience. The costumes and jewelry are the first layer, inviting the viewer in, and ready to experience the music and complex rhythms.”
Kathak is a fluid language of grace and intricacy.
One of its unique features is the staccato stops at the end of cyclical phrases that stop on the first beat of the next cycle with a sharp and surprising pose, perhaps after 20 fast spin). Beautiful, geometric shapes are strung together in patterns of hands and feet; It is calligraphy in the air.
The gestures in many of Wendy's paintings reflect the same inclination that drew her to the dance in the first place - the swirls of the wrist. A dance of primordial forms codified into a refined body culture, yet often rendered with spontaneous energy and improvisation.
Wendy’s foray into Bollywood dance – 2008-2015.
In 1991 Wendy studied art at Maharishi International University during the first-year core courses. (The collage work of that period resurfaced (pun intended) in 2015 right about the time her health limited the physical endurance for the dance).
Tiny colored pencil drawings in 2005-2008 were the beginning of what would overtake the dance-life.
In 2015, Wendy began oil painting under the guidance of Bill Teeple of ICON gallery in Fairfield.
Self-taught with mentors along the way, Wendy began to add mixed media and a greater repertoire of experimentation and tools to add to the different ways of working. These various approaches yield organically or intentionally-produced groupings of textured oils, works on paper and large canvases of acrylic ink and paint.
Painting
ICON studio
Peter Stegall got his MFA at California State University and is a contemporary of Jim Nutt and other Sacramento artists, and is well-known around the state.
