Local Artist Stephanie Shroyer Participating in ArtWalk 2022

Stephanie Shroyer will participate in ArtWalk 2022 in Fayetteville on May 7 and 8. Stephanie is a longtime resident of the region and is an ever popular artist at the event each year. Her fountains are known to sell out quickly, so come early and pick your favorite before it is gone.

Before Stephanie went into her art career, she had her own painting and wallpaper business for years. She became a youth director at two churches and later went into the social services. She took a position as Drug Prevention Educator for Youth and Family Services, and then went on to The Family Crisis Center in Bastrop as an advocate and then educator. Shroyer says, “While dealing with all the stress from these positions I found my love of mosaic. It was great therapy to break things and then put them back together as art!”

She became involved with the Austin Mosaic Guild and SAMA, Society of American Mosaic Artists. Using mosaic and ornamenting dimensional sculptures was her favorite medium. One day she concreted her exercise ball. This experience led her to her current medium. She concreted a few other balls as bowls to mosaic. These bowls had irregular edges emoting beautiful organic forms. The bowls did not get ornamented with mosaic but went directly into her gardens as bird baths and feeders. They soon filled with water and leaves, delighting the birds and cats that discovered them. When pecan leaves settled in them, and discolored they sparked the artist’s creativity with the idea of using leaf impressions to decorate the bowls.

Those observations prompted Stephanie’s pursuit of concrete art, a rigorous, self-taught process. It often begins in the garden where she picks leaves. She says, “The bigger, the better.” Stephanie has developed a deft touch while handling the hefty sacks of concrete that she mixes meticulously. The greenery often evolve into ingenious concrete birdbaths, fountains, wall hangings, pots or yard art that delight her customers. As Stephanie’s concrete creations continue to evolve, some have taken the more enigmatic form of people, animals or whimsical creatures from her imagination.

Meet Stephanie Shroyer at her Cment2b exhibit at ArtWalk on Saturday, May 7, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sunday, May 8, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m..

ArtWalk is an annual art festival sponsored by Arts for Rural Texas, a 501(c)3 not for profit organization that serves the Fayette County region.

For more information call (979) 378-2113 or visit the website at www.artsforruraltexas.org.