Stephanie London was born in Orlando, Florida, in 1976, and grew up in Wichita, Kansas. Just before her senior year of high school her family moved to Texas where she was required to take an art class to graduate; this was Stephanie's first introduction to painting, at age 18, and she immediately loved it.

She spent a couple of years teaching herself to paint before she went on to graduate from the University of Kansas with a Bachelors of Fine Arts, Painting, in 2000.

While exploring the combination of color, texture, and line at the university; Stephanie found an interest in using women's dress as her imagery. The next natural step was to then continue her studies by focusing on building a deeper understanding of the imagery itself.

In order to focus on imagery, Stephanie moved to New York City in 2001 and studied both design and the history of women's dress at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Several months after completing her studies, she was making a routine visit to the roof of her building to read, however, she slipped and suffered a life threatening 5-story fall off a fire escape of her building. After spending several weeks in the hospital, Stephanie then returned to Kansas for her recovery.

During her more than 15 months of recovery, she continued to work on The Dress Collection Series, being inspired by the raw, vulnerable, frailty of life. While continuing to heal both physically and emotionally, Stephanie also began exploring more abstract work in the Warfare series. She is currently continuing her work on both The Dress Collection Series and the Warfare Series.

CLICK HERE to read Wichita Register article

Gown Reflections

The inspiration for painting wedding gowns actually began from a life-altering accident I experienced in March, 2003. It would take more than a year for me to process and understand the vision that was developing; only then would I be able to put the idea to canvas. Here is the story that has led me to capture the most profound glimpse of beauty that most women will ever behold, their wedding day.

I had been in the hospital for almost a week after falling 5-stories off the fire escape of my apartment building. I felt completely raw, exposed, and a little bit of everything…except beautiful. I had no make-up and no curling iron while everyone I knew paraded in to see me, not had I seen a mirror in almost a week. Up until this time, I didn’t realize how important it was to me to feel beautiful, but I was consciously uncomfortable at times of how exposed I was. Then Friday came, 6 days into my hospital stay, and a dear friend, Denise, came to visit me. She came with a bag full of goodies—lots of those little things we take for granted, like having a real toothbrush and toothpaste, a hairbrush, and a bottle of lotion. It felt so wonderful! Denise pulled out a razor, and then proceeded to shave my legs. What a humbling experience for me. As I lay there in that hospital bed I could not help but think it was like Jesus washing his disciple’s feet. In the midst of all that had gone on that week she took the time to recognize the little details, and it truly touched my heart. She validated all those desires I had to feel beautiful even in the midst of such great trauma though it would seem only frivolous and unnecessary to most. She then continued by giving me a pedicure, using pink polish. I certainly wasn’t one of those girls who liked pink, at least not since I was five. I had grown up a bit of a tomboy. But, this would forever change my view of beauty, of pink, and of femininity. For the next two weeks I laid in that hospital bed and what stared back at me, peeking out from the end of my bed sheets, my pretty pink toes. It is funny to me how much delight I got from having pretty pink toes, but I realized that it helped to fulfill my desire for beauty.

Ever since the accident, beauty helps. It has become so important because beauty possesses an ability to heal. It just speaks something to my heart that I need to hear, to feel, to know. Beauty reaches inside and touches the surfaces of desires so deep that we dare not speak of them. Beauty in its purest and truest form makes our hearts ache, numbs our minds, and makes the whole world stand perfectly still, even if just for that one moment. Beauty cannot be contained and our hearts long for its freedom, a moment of sweet ecstasy from the hardships of our broken lives. Beauty speaks to the truth hidden deep inside each of our hearts. We were made for this, to be made whole through its perfection. The universal desire and longing for beauty exists because beauty is a reflection of God. I believe this longing for beauty is actually our hearts yearning to be united with Christ in his radiant beauty. When we encounter beauty as a bride ready for her groom, or watching a sunset, or walking on the beach, or being in the mountains, or watching the snow fall, or even simply admiring a daisy after a really tough day; each time we experience a bit of beauty it is like getting a glimpse of heaven and our hearts recognize that they are home.

It was the spring of 2004, one year later. I was still struggling to recover from the accident and rebuild my life. One day I found myself in a conversation with my cousin’s wife, Brenda. We were talking about the dresses I had been drawing for years when she mentioned what great dresses little girls wear, “Why don’t you draw their special dresses for them.” Over the next several days as I thought about our conversation, it came to me that the ultimate dress for every little girl and most every woman was the same… her wedding gown. And so, Gown Reflections was born. With each gown painting and drawing I am privileged to create, I am sharing a piece of the difficult, strange, and yet amazing journey of beauty overcoming over pain, brokenness, and loss.

As we grow up, life wages war against our hearts and the blissful days of youth pass us by, but somewhere at the core of each one of us there still exists a hint of the 5 year old we once were…longings to wear beautiful frilly dresses covered with bows, lace, and flowers gives way to the demands of everyday life. But that little 5 year old is still alive in each of us still holding to the days of innocence, pretty twirling dresses, twinkling eyes, and squeals of delight. So here is to remembering wholeness, purity, and innocent days of childhood, full of the hopes and dreams that are still buried inside. . . before life inflicted its wounds, before femininity had to be fought for, and when each little girl was a princess, rescued by her prince charming and chosen to forever be his Bride.


The Dress Collection Series

These works were created from a need to understand and poses true femininity and beauty. Using women’s dress as the subject and inspired by various life experiences, these contemporary pieces are a social commentary on feminism. Color, line, texture, and design work together to express a variety of experiences, moods, and emotions; each one an influence on a woman, who she is and who she is striving to become. Reaching beyond the confusion of a society with gender blurred lines; these works are a celebration of the beauty, power, and the strength of a woman; not in competition with man, but rather in contrast to masculinity. It is an attempt to interpret life’s
experiences in such a manner that femininity is not lost, but restored by a new understanding of the unique beauty and quiet, yet, strong gentleness which exist at the core of every woman.


Warfare Series

This collection of abstract work is the outward interpretation of inner desires, raw emotions, and venerable experiences. Relying heavily upon the spiritual elements of the soul, this intuitive work attempts to help understand, interpret, and feel the impact of life’s experiences upon ones own heart. Recognizing the daily battles and longings between what this world has to offer and what are hearts tell us we were meant for.

Each of the Works are titled in one of two categories,

D – represents Desire, each piece is an attempt to interpret and express one of the following seven desires:

Wisdom
Strength
Wholeness
Healing
Beauty
Freedom
Intimacy

L – represents Life, each piece is an attempt to interpret and express one of the following seven struggles life brings instead:

Confusion
Failure
Brokenness
Pollution
Chaos
Confinement
Loneliness