Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Morton-Millstein.
Hi Stephanie, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My father was Arnie Morton, who started Morton’s Steakhouse in Chicago, so I grew up inside a restaurant, surrounded by food, chefs, servers, waitressing, and hosting. I knew how to seat an entire restaurant by the time I was 10 . Being the kid of a businessman father who was obsessed with work and a mother who was a self-described domestic engineer certainly impacted my becoming an artist.
My parents weren’t much for talking or emotions. My father talked about food, people, art, and beauty – he was an idea machine. I learned to connect with my father through art – tagging along to flea markets, design meetings, art fairs, and food tastings. As the fourth sibling of five children—I have two brothers and two sisters—it was rare to get alone time with either of them. My mom and I communicated through activities in the home- primarily in the kitchen. She cooked dinner every night and I would help her chopping, stirring, setting the table or just tasting her masterpieces. My parents loved to entertain at the house, and the people watching was always totally outrageous. To give you an idea there were holiday parties with a couple hundred people, Leroy Neiman, Hefner, a woman who showed up in a fur coat with nothing else on…
I was never much for school, and if I was a kid now, I would have been diagnosed with processing disorders, add, adhd and would most likely have been put on meds. But I excelled at anything creative, anything that required connecting with people. I wanted to move away for college, so I ended up at The University of Arizona, studying photography, and minoring in video. Tucson was a massive turning point for me… Living in warm weather, seeing the sun daily, being able to have a key to the art studios, where I’d work all night, was life-changing. I attended a summer program for photography at NYU Tisch School of Arts and then spent a year abroad in Aix-En-Provence at a small painting school called Marchtuz School of Painting. After college, I worked for photographer Paul Natkin, sang in two bands, and traveled extensively throughout Southeast Asia. To keep my practice going, I always worked in restaurants.
In 2000, I moved to Los Angeles, and worked at a photo studio. My boss taught me how to use a Thomas Guide and would send me out to shoot 4-5 locations per day. It was an incredible way to learn this magnificent city. I eventually opened my own photographic production company and ran that for ten years, but I was growing tired of producing other people’s work, and I became frustrated denying my artistic practice. For the past 15 years, I have worked with clay and painting with clay and oil on canvas. I vacillate between the two at a constant – they feed each other. My practice is my life and am driven by the cycles of the moon. At this point in my career I don’t have to look at the calendar to know when a full moon is coming. The two phases- waxing gibbous to full moon drive me into a creative frenzy- the waning gibbous creates pondering about future work. My oil paintings are abstract and built with many layers of actual paintings – over and over each other- a metaphor for how many layers we are as humans. The clay painting begin as the canvas covering my tables- as I build my sculptures I am actually beginning a painting. When I like the colors, tones and textures of the clay on canvas I remove the canvas from the table, stretch it and paint on it. Touching clay is touching Earth. Working with Earths oldest medium is an act that I treasure and respect deeply. Being an artist is more than the finished work; it’s about the choices we make in life, who we spend time with, the food we make and most importantly, the moments I live through while doing the work. It’s all part of the journey and one I will continue to live as an artist until I am old and withered.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Being an artist can be very challenging. You work alone, have people over to see your work, and most of the time, it doesn’t play out how you think it will. There are many unanswered phone calls, rude humans, lovely humans, and everything in between. I wouldn’t change any of it. You have to make work for yourself, by yourself, and that needs to be enough. It all comes back to my practice and how it makes me feel.
The WHAT CRISIS? SAY WHAT IT IS has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us
October 7th changed the world and how I see myself in the world…it’s all still happening and difficult to talk about but my work is certainly changing. I try to align myself with those that support me and I’ve stopped looking for validation outside my studio door.
Contact Info:
- Website: MortonMillstein.studio
- Instagram:@mortonmillstein.studio
