Stories

Welcome to the narrative behind the art.

For forty years, I’ve been making marks – in journals, on canvas, through folded books. Some become paintings. Others become words.

Stefani Peter's stack of personal journals and sketchbooks dated from 1988 to 2018, showing three decades of daily practice and writing, with colored ribbon bookmarks

This is where I write about:

  • The work – Why I started a series, what it means, how it evolved
  • The practice – Daily rhythms, materials, process
  • The journey – Immigration, identity, belonging
  • The community – Exhibitions, symposiums, teaching

These stories complement the visual work you’ll find in my Portfolio. They offer context, reflection, and invitation into the creative life behind the images.

Browse by category in the sidebar, or start with recent posts below.

Thank you for being here.

— Stefani

Naveganças

Navegancas – Statement | Proposal FUNARTE, São Paulo Brazil 2026Download

The exhibition “Navigationen” in December of this year 2025 is a precursor to the big Ponte Cultura Exhibition 2026 in São Paulo.

In June of this year – 2025 – I traveled with a group of Artists from Nuremberg, Bavaria to the south west of France. There I attended an artist symposium that was serving as a think tank for the topic of “Naveganças”, an exhibition title that came originated from our Brazilian artist friends. I loved it right away. It is such a poetic title – and I love poetry…. During the – again – fabulous 10 days of being together and contemplating, I realized that it is 31 years that I had the first exhibition in Brazil with four other German artists in the vast main hall of the SESC Pompeia.

Folded books: Blutbahnen – Oil and Gouache on Paper
Foreground Correria – Oil on Lining Fabric

There, for the first time exhibited also my Books of the Days. It was a great success. As was the whole 7 weeks I spent in São Paulo.

ESC Pompeia exhibition opening São Paulo 1994 with artists and Ponte Cultura tea
From left: Selma Daffré, Marianne Stüve, unknown, Vangela Geis, Stefani Peter, Liz Miller, Leila de Sarquis, Carola Dewor, Fernanda Amalfi.
Artist's workspace showing multiple accordion-fold artworks in progress with watercolor palette and brushes outdoors
Artist sketchbook accordion format featuring gestural figure studies in sepia oil crayon, showing dancer Patricia - St ,France 9-7-99"

Little folded book

Unique Book Objects

Artist Books

Books and Book Objects are an important part in my artistic work. I am writing texts and poetry as long as I can think and amassed an impressive collection of notebooks, journals and artist books over 50 years. 

TO SEE MORE, PLEASE CLICK BELOW:

EARLYBOOKS 1987-1995
BOOKS OF THE DAYS 1992-2025
COMING SOON
Monoprint

Commission AION | Monoprints


Leaving the Past Behind

Progression:

Leaving the Past Behind is another ongoing project. I started it 2024 in preparation to my art show participation with Ponte Cultura e.V. in Nuremberg, Germany. The idea was pretty simple: Old discarded canvases from my business that were stored for a long time and had no other used anymore, were painted over with white gesso and then arranged in an assemblage of canvases. Mediums used were acrylic paints and pens. The idea was, in connection to the Ubuntu project the same year, to see each panel as a family of individuals that gets through connecting circles or or circle parts is influenced and conditioned. Meanwhile, the series grew to 27 pieces.

The first image is from January 2025, the second from February 8th 2024 and is a small paper sketch for the project.