Stina Joy Henslee: Sept 25 – Oct 18
September 27, 2024Stina Joy Henslee is a mixed media artist and graphic designer, who relocated to Dubuque, Iowa in 2020 from her hometown of Chicago. In 1999 she spent a year in Helsinki attending a fine arts high school and then continued her arts education at Washington University in St. Louis where she studied Printmaking, German and Art History. Post graduation she lived in Berlin, where she found out she is not cool. Since then, she has worked as a graphic designer, primarily in book and catalog design.
“The mixed media art that I create combines darkly humorous and playful imagery with visceral, at times violent, realities. Art for me is about healing, and while personal and vulnerable in nature, I hope that my work resonates with the public and fosters understanding. The human experience is filled with great joy and great trauma and art should reflect that. My work is steeped in emotion, but makes use of kitschy elements as a contrast to the seriousness; because what is life without humor? The artistic approach I take is an ‘any means possible’ attitude when it comes to the mediums I use. Spray paint, acrylic, ink, jelly pen, string, collage, watercolor and stencil are all incorporated, as are juxtapositions of tight line work and expressive painterly strokes. My work is typically thematic in nature, but ties together through personal symbolic imagery that I have developed over time. Past concepts I have worked with include religious trauma, disordered eating, suburban malaise and how humans negatively affect the animal world. My current body of work is a curated collection of visual representations of tension. I am looking forward to sharing it with the world.”
