Artist Member – Co-founder
Water Under the Bridge
Handmade paper, gouache, wax, wood, string, and leather
Open: 8 x 12.5 x .75” Closed: 8 x 6 x 1.25”
Windward
Vintage postcards, letterpress and hand painting, ribbon, feathers, fabric, altered book
Open: 8 x 12 x 6”
Eat Your Vegetables (Chinese version)
Woodcut prints on wood panel, book cloth
Open: 6.5 x 32 x .25” Closed: 6.5 x 5 x 1.75”
Stephanie Stigliano 
www.stephaniemahanstigliano.com
BIO
The prints and artist’s books of Stephanie Stigliano are included in are included in the collections of the Fogg Museum and the Houghton Library of Harvard University, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the National Museum for Women in the Arts, and the Book Art Museum of Łodz, Poland. She has taught Printmaking and Books as Art at Walnut Hill School for the Arts, Natick, MA since 2007. She taught Between the Covers, Books as Art at Art New England for several years. She curated Legacy: Passing the Torch, an exhibition of mentors and their students, at the Hess Gallery of Chestnut Hill, MA. As the East Coast Coordinator for al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here, she curated Absence and Presence, an exhibit of fifty artist prints at Curry College, Milton, MA.
Locally, Stigliano’s artist’s books were included in On Books: Sculpture at the Portland Public Library, Portland, ME. Her print from The Charles River Alphabet Prints portfolio was included in New England on Paper: Contemporary Art in the Boston Athenaeum’s Prints and Photographs Collections. Her prints were included in 2016: A State of Mind, Lunder Gallery, Exeter, NH; The Fourth National Monoprint/Monotype Juried Exhibition, Attleboro Arts Museum, MA; From Palette to Plate, Newport Museum, RI and Boston Printmakers North American Biennial, Lesley University College of Art and Design, Cambridge, MA.
Internationally, Stigliano initiated a print project between students of Walnut Hill School for the Arts and The Technical College of Reykjavik. She taught a workshop to the women’s artist collective of Hurumzi Henna Art Gallery in Stonetown, Zanzibar. In Krakow, Poland, she contributed to a print portfolio at The Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts. She exhibited her prints at Íslensk Grafík, Reykjavik, Iceland. Her artist’s books were included in Correspondence: The 9th International Book Art Festival, which traveled throughout Poland.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
Making art in book form is a way to create a tactile experience for the audience. It is art that tells a story through images, moving through time as the viewer turns the pages. I use diverse materials and processes to reinforce the meaning of the work.
Using sewn, collaged and painted vintage postcards, Windward represents the moment of explosion. When the books are closed, the pages are mismatched and barely contained between discarded covers. The postcards are relics representing now lost forgotten connections; a handwritten message sent and received.
Eat Your Vegetables (Chinese version) was inspired by a trip to our local market and dinner at a friend’s house. The colors, shapes and textures of the produce were intriguingly different than the traditional Western still life pears and apples. The neighbors proofed my calligraphy and shared a meal made from the still life. I made two books of woodcut prints both the Chinese and English versions recommend eating five vegetables and fruits per day for health.
Water Under the Bridge has a carved wood cover similar to slats of a bridge. The thick handmade paper pages are painted with gouache with a wax resist using a batik method. Discarded items are caught in the current and a sentence sinks into the depths. On the last page a salmon fights to swim upstream.
Making books challenges me to design from two- to three-dimensions, and gives me a chance to work in a variety of materials.