Stephen Cefalo-

The paintings I am most impacted by stay with me not as individual pictures, but as a collective sense of beauty and power. Some of my paintings begin as a lingering image or a phrase in my imagination, and some begin with something that I saw and wished to capture and wonder about. It is important to me that every element surfaces naturally as an outgrowth of my experiences rather than being forced or contrived. Pictures should not simply tell stories or stand for things, but should stick in the soul and haunt the imagination. Departures from naturalism are tools for speaking of the unseen realms of the mind and the spirit.