Printmaking

e-mail: steph.johnsen@yahoo.com
website: www.stephjohnsenart.com

Bio

Steph was raised in the rocky mountains of northern Utah, the oldest of four kids. She earned a BFA in Printmaking, and Painting & Drawing in 2006 at Utah State University. Currently she is completing her second year as a MFA printmaking candidate at The University of Montana. She has taught undergraduate courses in lithography,  relief printmaking, drawing, screen-printing and various workshops. Her prints have been shown both nationally and internationally. Nature, especially rivers, has been a significant influence in her life and work. She has worked as a professional whitewater river guide for several years across Utah, Colorado, Idaho and Alaska. She continues to seek out new experiences, relationships, adventures and opportunities for growth.

Statement

The dynamic process of constant reshaping and change in rivers has had a powerful impression on me. Rivers and their processes have numerous associations, some of which are the process of human relationships and the process of being shaped as a human being. I am very interested in the relationship of surface and subsurface: the apparent and the obscure. The surface, or what is apparent, is such a small view of the manifestations of a river’s dynamic process. But it does gives clues and hints as to what is going on in the subsurface with the undercurrent forces, and the powerful process of these obscure undercurrents. My work allows me to examine these processes, to ask questions, and see new connections and meanings.