CityView Magazine

34 | November/December 2018 F A R T S F our years ago, Stephanie Bostock started painting full-time as a result of a very personal and powerful life-changing event. "Back in 2014, I learned that I had stage IVA thyroid cancer," she said. Aer surgery and treatment, she was consumed by fear that the cancer would return. It was an overwhelming time. "I had to get a grip and focus on something before I fell off the deep end," Bostock said. Her husband, Chris, encouraged her to express her emotions through painting. She did – and hasn't stopped since. "It was an explosion, with all my fears, feelings and emotions pouring out of me and onto my canvas," Bostock said. "It was an escape, a distraction, and it helped to clear my mind. You know, an 'art yoga,' so to speak – a way to meditate and express myself." Others saw and appreciated her art and the Fayetteville resident has since found success, selling her work at local galleries and through relationships with interior designers. She also paints on or transfers her images to other surfaces, including clothing, which she calls "wearable art," as well as items like trays, vases, phone cases and yoga mats. Mostly, though, she works on more traditional surfaces. "Painting allows me to express myself on canvas," Bostock said. "For me, painting is therapeutic, a meditation and an outlet. I feel free when I have a brush in my hand and paint on my palette. e road I have traveled has given me new direction. It's been one of my most difficult challenges as I am and I continue to be a 'cancer survivor.' Each new day is my inspiration, and so I will just paint until my heart is content and then… I'll paint some more." Born and raised in the Chicago area, Bostock graduated from Purdue University's School of Design with a BA in Industrial Design. She has 20-plus years of print-media, marketing, industrial and graphic design in her background and said she painted occasionally before her cancer diagnosis but mostly representational pieces and at the request of others. Putting feelings on canvas BY KELLY TWEDELL | PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATTHEW WONDERLY

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