Stafford has always worked in series—streams of thoughts and desires common to us all, represented by images. She sees the images as signs of the material world, intimations of the nonmaterial. At first Stafford's series were narrative, encompassing quotidian aspects such as romantic love and building construction. And Stafford considered ideas—enlightenment, science, memory. Now Stafford is thinking about nature and the planet. For a long time, Stafford has been working on the Natural History paintings. It is a slow process. The paintings are all based on photographs of trees that she has taken.
In March 2023, Stafford worked outside in Naples, Italy, projecting images of paintings from the Natural History series. Stafford often worked in small spaces. Things changed rapidly from projecting onto walls to projecting onto grilles, plants, windows, other architecture. The Napoli project is two-part: 1. delicate and detailed oil paintings; 2. projections. At times the images seem to be just color and light, and they never resolve into a branch or a leaf.
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