ILENE STERNS
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My career as an artist and writer spans more than 40 years. After completing a post graduate degree in Archaeology and Anthropology, I moved to New York City where I worked in galleries and started to create my own art. My earliest pieces were painted constructions exploring ideas of perception; I soon moved on to painting and multimedia installations. In the mid 1980s I created a series of large-scale installations focusing on the artists, writers and composers from all nations who fought and died in the First World War. This work was exhibited in galleries in New York, Edinburgh and Amsterdam.
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In the late 1980s, I moved to a small seaside town in Massachusetts where I started writing for magazines and newspapers. I also worked with programmers and other creative artists on interactive multimedia projects for TV and CD-ROM. In the early 1990s I began a long-term collaboration with technologists from Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (Cambridge, MA). In 1995 we created Diamond Park, a groundbreaking social virtual reality project.
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As one of the inventors of a fundamental 3D graphics patent, I was invited to become a co-founder of Mitsubishi's Multimedia Research Lab in Silicon Valley. I spent several years working in the high tech industry in the Bay Area, first on the creative and then on the business side.

In 2000 I moved to the UK, where I have lived and worked ever since. As a artist, I have always been keen to explore new media and techniques and over the past couple of decades my work has ranged from digital photography to hand-printed textiles. I have also ventured into other creative fields: in 2004 I received a Diploma With Distinction in Garden Design and in 2010 I wrote a cookery book.

My recent work has been diverse and site specific -- projects have included large-scale, mixed media installations for organisations such as The Lost Gardens of Heligan and National Trust Trelissick (Cornwall).
I also collaborate with Pewter Sky on a wide range of projects, all of which use pewter as their unifying medium.

More about my work:
Selected Awards and Prizes:
Simpson Travel 2016 Travel Writing Competition, Winner
Lundy Island Calendar Competition (2011)
National Trust, Avebury Circles in Time (Photography Competition) (2010)
The International Garden Photographer of the Year, Muckin4Life, First Prize (2010)
The International Garden Photographer of the Year, Early Bird Competition, First Prize, Garden Views Category (2008)
Berkshire & Chilterns Life/CPRE 80th Anniversary Photography Competition, Runner Up, Landscape Category (2006)
Burnham Beeches 125th Anniversary Photographic Competition, First Prize (2005).

Selected Publications and Photography Credits:
The National Trust
Images of England
London Parks & Gardens Trust
BBC Online
Woodland Trust
The Kennel Club
Razor Red
IEEE Multimedia
Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments
TV4 Sweden
The Scotsman
Art Journal
Craftseller


Selected Teaching and Workshop Experience:
Herbs for Healing, Barnsley, Gloucestershire - Garden Photography workshops
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA - Guest Lecturer, Postgraduate Programme in User Interface Design
Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA - Instructor, Department of Design Communications and Visiting Artist, Department of Painting
The InterArt Center, New York - Consultant, Education Programme
South Shore Art Center, Cohasset, MA - Lecturer on Contemporary Art
Artists Talk on Art, New York - Organiser/moderator, ‘New Scottish Art’ Symposium

All text and images copyright 2021
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