Ann Stautberg’s 6-12-17, #8 shows a rare perspective of nature. The viewer, as if transformed into an insect, sees the white clouds and grey sky from below the plants. Looking directly upward, the viewer is dwarfed by the heavens. The sky is silhouetted by botanical shapes on all sides. These botanical shapes, flat in tonality and moody in atmosphere, abruptly impede the viewer’s experience of the sky. The work lacks highlights and shadows. In their place, Stautberg employs overlaying to imply depth. She shields the sky with the botanical silhouettes, thereby signaling that they are closer in space in relation to the viewer. Stautberg leaves it up to the viewer to imagine the distance between the plants and the clouds, the earth and the sky. By engaging the viewer in this way, the work functions as a participatory image. By omitting explicit depth in her monochromatic composition, Stautberg allows the viewer to digest and make sense of the image, to conceptualize the work’s spatial relationships on their own.

Ann Stautberg was born in Houston in 1949. She earned her B.F.A. from the Texas Christian University in 1971. In the following year, she received her master’s degree from the University of Dallas. Stautberg currently live and work in Houston. Working mostly from her home, Stautberg finds inspiration in her garden. Stautberg’s work are in the collections of the Austin Museum of Art, the El Paso Museum of Art, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Museum of Southeast Texas, and many more.