Throughout human history, art has always been one of the main steps toward enlightenment and the freedom of expression that came with it. The Art Collective festival FAR-Bazaar is just around the corner and the public will see hundreds of showcases here at Cerritos College.

Amongst those artists is Canadian born and holder of a Master’s degree from the California Institute of the Arts Stephanie Deumer.

“So, I’ve always been interested in art when I was young, my parents encouraged me. It was more the crafts if anything. I didn’t go to an arts high school like many of my friends did when they were younger. So, my introduction to art and interest to art actually started [as an] undergrad.” Deumer explained.

In her time as an undergrad, Deumer was studying physics and the path of art was not yet in her mind. She noticed that in her first year as an undergrad she was sketching on her free time rather than doing her physics assignment or homework.

It wasn’t until she was listening in on an art critique for one the art classes that she realized what it was this that she yearned for.

“One particular day I came across a critique in one of the art classes they were doing outside. One of the students had done a door installation and I stood there for the whole critique and just listened to it and I think at that point was when I realized that ‘okay, I’m spending my free time watching art classes and sort of observing’ and so I decided to switch programs. That’s when I decided to fully dedicate myself to art” she said.

Deumer grew up in Canada, just outside Toronto. She received her BA at the University of Guelph. About three and half years ago, she arrived in California to attend CalArts, where she received her Masters in Fine Arts.

In that time, she met someone who became a very good friend of hers, last year’s artist in residence here at Cerritos College Beatriz Cortez.

Cortez met Deumer in September 2013, both attended school spending three years together and at one point shared an art studio.

Within the group of students, they were a part of, Cortez was the oldest and Deumer was the youngest. They both hit it of quite well.Cortez believes what made her and Deumer click, she speaks highly of her and her work.

Cortez said, “I think that her work and my work have always had a dialogue with each other and I have always been interested in her work because she is able to take things out of one context, especially with things that have to do with play and childhood and bring it to another context. She is also able to make videos, she’s amazing at making videos that create different worlds and different experiences with footage that had already been used for other purposes.”

Deumer’s thesis at CalArt was titled “In and Of Itself” which was a filmed project. Being fond of video installations, she works a lot with optical illusions.

“In and of Itself,” is an example of the type of art and video installations that Deumer loves to present. Having a white cubical plywood in the middle of an empty square room, she then has four projectors in all four corners of the room and each of them projecting film on each side of the plywood cube.

Each side then faces the corners of the room and it works like a pseudo-mirror reflection which, when she stands in the right position she can be seen reflected on all sides of the cubical. Front, back right and left side. She also wears a dress that looks like wood material. She wanted to play with the idea of wood-print.

Deumer has also been to places such as Quito, Ecuador with Cortez and attended an art collective that both were a part of.

“This year, Stephanie and I were a part of an artist collective show that was put together in Quito, Ecuador, and it was really wonderful to see the piece that she had made. It was a video installation that had also revolved around mirrors […] and also had an entire dialogue from a film so it was really interesting to see her put it together,” Cortez said.

She is speaking of the art piece titled “What is an object?” which deals with the concept of the male gaze and the perception of how women are perceived in film by male actors and male directors.

At the FAR-Bazaar even next week, Deumer will be presenting an art piece titled “Features of the Same Face.” It will be a sculptural installation that was inspired by a doll house her mother made when she was a child. She’ll be putting in furniture, wallpaper and she will do her best to incorporate the original memory of her childhood.

This will be presented on Saturday Jan. 28 from 6 p.m. -8 p.m. in the Art gallery of the new fine arts building across from the C-10 parking lot.

Deumer’s past work, can be seen by visiting her website http://stephaniedeumer.com.