Eric Stefanski Be As Romantic As You Want To Be For Sale

About this work

Eric Stefanski's "Be As Romantic As You Want To Be" delivers its message with the directness that has become central to his practice, the phrase rendered in his characteristic hand-painted lettering against a field that holds space for contemplation. The words stretch across the substantial 60 x 84 inch canvas, their scale transforming a simple permission into something closer to proclamation. Stefanski's brushwork carries the subtle imperfections of the human hand—slight variations in letter weight, the visible texture of paint built up and worked across the surface—that distinguish his text paintings from mechanical reproduction and root them firmly in the tradition of painting as physical act. The emotional register here operates on multiple frequencies. There is tenderness in the invitation, but also something defiant, as though the statement pushes back against cynicism or emotional guardedness. Stefanski treats language as both image and artifact, understanding that words accumulate feeling through repetition, through the contexts in which we encounter them, through the very act of someone taking the time to paint them by hand at monumental scale. His canvases function as permissions, reminders, or gentle confrontations depending on what the viewer brings to them. Within Stefanski's broader body of work, this piece sits comfortably among his explorations of vulnerability and human connection, using the democratic accessibility of text to create immediate emotional entry points while the materiality of oil paint grounds each statement in something tactile and enduring. The work is available for acquisition through Guy Hepner in New York.