Stephen Wiggins was born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky where he started drawing at a young age and has continued practicing art throughout his life. He began painting when he was in high school and he applied and was juried into the School for Creative and Performing Arts at Lafayette Senior High School and continued painting throughout his collegiate career in Berea College as an undergraduate student and then upon transferring to the University of Kentucky began to expand into the study of printmaking.
He started with studying stone lithography and then learned silkscreen printmaking as a part of his studies. Upon graduating he became a member of the Bluegrass Printmakers’ Cooperative learning linocut and etching printmaking techniques. Moving to Portland, Oregon on a whim in 2008 he began to work in linocut at various fine arts printmaking open studios and also building silkscreen printmaking frames to print from home.
Stephen returned to Lexington Kentucky in 2010 and then began to use the BPC studio and as well as renting space at Awesome inc. and between 2011-2013 he created rain barrels for the Bluegrass Greensource winning every year the rain barrel artist award. In 2013 he created bourbon barrel with LexArts public arts project and in 2014 he decided to focus primarily in finearts printmaking with linocut and silkscreen. He then showed his prints in art fairs, markets,and exhibitions regularly in the central Kentucky area and nationally. In 2015 he became the president of the Bluegrass Printmakers’ Cooperative and started attending printmaking conferences in 2015, 2017 and 2022 through the Southern Graphics Conference International in 2016 he oversaw the move from the BPC from LexArts to Parks and Recreation and accepted the position of liaison between the BPC and Parks and Rec.
In 2019 he was accepted into the Speedball Arts Products Demo Artist Program demonstrating linocut and screenprint processes using Speedball Art Products. In 2021 he was juried into the Kentucky Crafted Program. Now he works independently from home using the provisional press and working at the printmaking studio space at Lexington Parks and Recreation teaching and directing workshops in printmaking. In 2022 He presented at the SGCI Printmaking Conference on a panel talking about Crafting Inclusive Spaces and was accepted into the WELL FED portfolio exchange. His work has been accepted into juried shows locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.
2022
ARTIST STATEMENT
Stephen and his prints focus on the process of creating an image that can be multiplied. His work
focuses on establishing this practice in the creation of editions of images. Primarily using black and
white color schemes he focuses on the type of work that focuses on strong contrast of mark making.
The themes he conquers in his work is varied but his style is apparent through each piece. At first
diving into printmaking was a rebellion from the years of painting, but now printmaking is a new form
of art he continues to practice. His work continues to explore the medium and concentrates on practice
of linocut, silkscreen, lithography and etching. He wants to continue to do these as non-toxic as possible.