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| Stefanie Denz |
It began with lunch on Nando’s on Lonsdale with my friend Ian Bateson. He is now a trustee of the North Vancouver City Library. Bateson gave me a tour of the lovely library. He was unable to explain to me to my satisfaction why in North Vancouver they have two city halls, one for the city and one for the district.
From the City of North Vancouver Library we went to the Lynn Valley Main Library of the District of North Vancouver. We were there to see a show by Salt Spring artist Stefanie Denz.
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| North Vancouver City Library |
We were rewarded by a show of paintings some of which oozed, in an elegant and colourful twist, on subtle eroticism.
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| Janus - 48" x 52 " oil on panel Stefanie Denz My not the best iPhone 3G capture |
These painting are even more so (erotic that is) when you are lucky to run into Stefanie Denz. We were. She is not afraid to look at you straight in the eye and to stand in close proximity (as if you were riding a Tokyo elevator). The colours of her paintings remind me of 50s American Technicolor movies set in Manhattan modern. There are elements (for this photographer who is no critic) that are reminiscent of Balthus a painter that I admire and have used for inspiration.
While at the library I thought of another woman, a woman who works in that very library and who shares a connection with Denz. You see both Corinne McConchie and Stefanie Denz have posed in my mother’s Mexican red shawl. Besides that connection I can attest to the fact that both of them look at you straight in the eye in an unnerving way if you are not used to that sort of thing.
I would have to be rather stupid not to think of some collaborative project that would include those two and another - a person who posed in that red shawl, and that’s me! Such a project might be a great deal easier to accomplish than to figure out why there are two city halls in North Vancouver.
Stefanie Denz
Red Shawl Series -Me&My Project to date.
