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Stephanie Corr-Gartanutti is a painter and wire sculptor. A proud art school dropout hailing from Delran, NJ, Stephanie has developed a distinctive style of sculpture that uses thin, malleable wire. She has been working with the wire since 2000 just after she started experiencing the symptoms of what was later diagnosed as Multiple Sclerosis. In addition to her own work Stephanie also curates the occasional Low Brow Art Series at the North Star Bar.

How did you start working with wire?

My major in school was painting, but when the MS hit I couldn’t hold a paintbrush. I started to make armatures for papier-mâché and found that I didn’t want to cover the wire. That first piece just seemed to work better without it, so I kept going from there. After a while I started figuring out how best to work the material and then began experimenting with different colors and gauges. The process of working with the wire turned out to be very physically therapeutic for me. Needless to say, it quickly replaced painting.

The process with the wire is very organic. Painting is also organic, but in a very different way. I usually sketch the sculptures first but they tend to take on their own shapes when I’m working on them. With such a slow and laborious process you easily get an idea of which works better, the sketch, or what you have in front of you. When I painted I always worked with layer after layer and the end result was often something that I felt was overworked. With the wire I always feel like there can be even more layers.

Your paintings are more theme-oriented, whereas your sculptures are more character based. Has this change in focus affected the way you express yourself at all?

The paintings were pretty literal while the sculptures are more personal. The wire is very much like the nervous system. When I exaggerate the proportions of the figure, it tends to mimic the MS. The work has become an outward reflection of my body…

More on the artist and photos after the jump!

Other than constantly having to run around after your daughter, how has motherhood impacted your work?

It definitely has slowed down my work, but it’s getting better as she’s getting older. Sculpting is much easier to work on with a child around than painting. She’s also been a great inspiration for me. One of my works has a woman sitting up, legs spread with her hands planted in support. At eight months Lil sat up by herself for the first time; I instantly loved the pose and began sketching it.

Being a mommy has also really toned down my themes. Most of my paintings are much more grotesque than the sculptures. I’m also working more with singular forms, though I still do like the idea working multiple figures in a piece. If only each sculpture didn’t take so long to work on!

What’s the Low Brow Art Series at the North Star all about?

It’s a way local for artists to have a place to show their work hassle free. We get a really diverse crowd at the bar throughout the week! one night it will be rockabilly, the next soul and then punk the next. The artists get to have their work seen by everyone who passes through. Not mention it keeps the bar looking pretty. Our crowds are mostly younger thinking minds, from college age to 20 and 30 somethings, and they like to have the work to look at. In galleries you check out a piece for a few seconds/minutes and move on; in this setting you get to sit with it for a few hours.

The lowbrow part comes from the 70′s movement of the same name that came from the Cali underground. Our focus is less on the lowbrow style, per se, and more about giving emerging artists a place to show.

Stephanie’s work on Myspace
http://www.myspace.com/scorr73

North Star Bar
2639 Poplar Street, Philadelphia, PA 19130
www.northstarbar.com