Stephanie Hunder
Stephanie Hunder is a Professor of Art at Concordia University in St. Paul, Minnesota. She teaches classes in printmaking and design foundations and is the Director of the Concordia Gallery. Originally from Rochester, Minnesota, Hunder received her Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Arts from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and her Master of Fine Arts from Arizona State University. Her current work addresses relationships through natural iconography and combines photographic and digital techniques with traditional printmaking processes. As an educator, creating content through making is an area of special interest for Hunder. The significance of process – as exploring, researching, and creating – being central to learning and vocation is a focus in her teaching.
Artist’s statement:
Humans understand non-tangible ideas through metaphor, parallels of the material world. A tree sending out roots, a seed blowing on the wind – these natural processes are akin to the physical processes of the human body, representative of what we think, and how we structure those thoughts. Natural images are appealing and meaningful, conceptual on the most basic level.
I grew up in a family of doctors and amateur naturalists, collecting butterflies and identifying trees. My mother encouraged interest in the arts, and my older sister taught me how to draw and paint. However, learning printmaking and photography is what really helped me find my voice. I fell in love with these processes; they have a visual language that carries the idea of observation and recording, the beginning of understanding.
Some of the earliest pieces here explore narrative and tell a story not unlike a dream – symbolic elements are pulled together in ways that suggests intertwining ideas and relationships. The series of large black and white images focuses on spiritual symbolism and ways of understanding through metaphor. The belief that, in the darkest hour, a rose may bloom changes how we understand our world. As the moon reflects the sun, so moonlight on water may create an image of self-reflection – the water symbolizing our surfaces and depths. Plants grow, stars rise, materials crystallize, and chaos is tempered by order; this beauty we find in nature is a confirmation of meaning.