Shelley Thorstensen

Artist’s Statement

Sometimes when I work, things are sure footed, sometimes less so.  Always, forms evolve. They turn and I rely on a sense for which I cannot find a proper name to hesitate the turning, to coalesce a given form. Sometimes this is founded upon observed natural forms, artifacts. Sometimes the form feels invented. Sometimes it jumps, for example, at metaphors for light or color, natural and unnatural, or a host of other associations.

In the medium of the hand pulled print color and form can be separate investigations into meaning, effect, response. I am very comfortable with that fluid hierarchy: form and color are unlinked and either can assume a dominate role which is not determined until I call the print done. This arena gives me the best ability to get at meaning, and it is complicated enough to serve the purpose of entrancing my attention. The way I work is also how I ultimately make my way in this world.

Biography

Shelley Thorstensen was born in Oklahoma, and as a young child of military parents, lived in Austria and Germany, finally settling in New Jersey. She now lives in Oxford, PA and is the Director of Printmakers Open Forum LLC, at 2000 square foot all-inclusive print facility (www.printmakersopenforum.org). She has an undergraduate degree in Experimental Studies from Syracuse University, School of Visual & Performing Arts, Syracuse NY, and a graduate degree in Printmaking from the Tyler School of Art / Temple University in Philadelphia PA.

Her work can be seen at Dolan/Maxwell in Philadelphia, PA. (www.dolanmaxwell.com) and at shelleythorstensen.com. She was most recently a NEA Research Artist at Kansas State University in Electrolytic Chemical Etching and a Visiting Artist at Rhode Island College in Rhode Island.

She writes about her work: “My work is a result of the confluence of inner and outer stimuli. It’s a result of personal narrative as much as observed affect. It derives as much from experience as it does from answered and unanswered questioning. I think about the connection between the manmade and what we call natural, the extension and overlap of each modality. Sometimes in my work, things are sure footed, sometimes less so. The forms evolve, they turn and I rely on a sense for which I cannot find a proper name to hesitate the turning, to coalesce a given form. Because I work in the medium of the hand pulled print, color and form can be separate investigations into meaning, effect, response. I am very comfortable with that fluid hierarchy: where form and color are unlinked and either can assume a dominant role, which is not determined until I call the print done.”

https://www.shelleythorstensen.com/