“A painting of Stephanie King often feels as though many images from different fairy tales were pulled from their imaginary worlds, laid bare on a table, and then reinserted into new stories. While a first viewing often reveals the tension between these disparate images, further study creates a desire for resolution. In examining these works, one feels drawn to solve a problem, to repair a tension between symbolism, humanity, and nature, between whimsy, wonder, and darkness. Trapped goldfish are asked to dream of the complex world above the bowl, simultaneously full of beauty and peril. Women are bound by ropes and vines, pierced by arrows, sprouting antlers and roots simultaneously--  hopeful, but unaware. The subjects do not know that the way out is simple, that while the compass, map or weather vane is out beyond their field of vision, it is also within their reach. This juxtaposition between the safety and pain of staying and the freedom and danger of going is presented with no remedy or cure implied. While the pieces of the puzzle may look familiar, they have been re-assembled to test our understanding, to strain our comfort in that which we know, to ask questions we dare not answer.“

~Kirt Gunn