All artists face rejection. The real ones turn those losses into fuel.

DJ Stenson is a real one. 

Stenson’s artistic career can be divided into two chapters. In the first, she worked in graphic design, a role she left because of creativity-sapping deadlines and family obligations. Stenson instead focused her passion on teaching school-aged children and, more recently, students at the Autism Resource Center of Litchfield County. 

“Art opened up their communication like you wouldn’t believe,” Stenson said in an interview at the New Hartford Artisans Guild, surrounded by dozens of her own paintings – the result of Stenson’s second chapter, which began a decade ago.

With the kids grown and gone Stenson followed her instinct: she picked up a brush, put on The Walking Dead as background noise, and began playing with the canvas: She’d paint a scene and scrape it away; she’d spray water on wet canvas; she’d dab color away with a shop towel – an improvisational approach that let her creativity flow like water. 

Water happens to be the subject of many of Stenson’s spirited paintings: Crashing oceans in technicolor acrylic churn on the canvas; other pieces, multimedia collages, play with light and shadow to conjure ethereal, haunting scenes.

Stenson’s reputation grew over the years. So did her confidence in her work. And it was that confidence that led her to enter a contest at Torrington’s Five Points Gallery; we know from this piece’s opening that she lost.

Judges preferred Nayana LeFond’s Portraits in Red: images of missing indigenous women smeared with a dripping red hand. And Stenson agrees with the judges. “Her work was mind-blowing.” It also blew Stenson’s creativity in a new direction. 

“After seeing that, I thought, ‘Maybe I can find something that matters to me as an educator, and as an avid reader and advocate for women’s rights.” Thus, Stenson’s series inspired by banned books, including Alice in Wonderland, The Scarlet Letter, and Frankenstein – works that capture the books’ souls while raising awareness around censorship. “It’s not the government banning these books, it’s certain communities.” 

As for the future, Stenson is full steam ahead. “Ten years ago, I made a commitment to myself: ‘I’m never giving this up again.’” We should all look forward to the next chapter. 

Check out DJ Stenson’s website for more of her incredible art.