These canvases are about five feet high and taller than they are wide, like an Asian hanging scroll. They're grommeted at the edges and push-pinned to the wall, raw and exposed rather than framed and under glass. In each, the central image is a narrow portion of an idyllic landscape that Stoops copied from the work of the 19th-century painter acknowledged in the title. Stoops studied philosophy in her native New Zealand, and her philosophical bent is clear in her artwork. She is an adherent of chaos theory, the science that finds patterns in the erratic.
Stoops also creates dialogues between techniques and materials.
She transfers, stencils, paints and drips imagery in ink, acrylic, oil, graphite and watercolor. The possibility for lack of control feeds Stoops' conceptual intent. The sheer quantity of materials and processes might account for the success of the large-scale works relative to the small ones. But the spiral sends a message of connectedness more clearly. The introduction of a human body part is an unnecessary aberration that dilutes the rhythmic quality of the more geometric symbols.