Stephen Goddard
Semifinalist
Stephen Goddard (b. 1951, Altadena, CA) has a BFA from Grinnell College, as well as an MA and a PhD both from the University of Iowa, Iowa City. He also studied printmaking at Pasadena City College, CA. Goddard’s work has been exhibited at University of Northern Iowa Gallery of Art, Cedar Falls, IA; Hastings College, NE; Bradbury Art Museum, Jonesboro, AK; University of Wisconsin-Madison; Georgia College and State University, Milledgeville; Society of American Graphic Artists and Exit Art, both New York, NY; Janet Wallace Fine Arts Complex, St. Paul, MN; and Seattle Print Arts, Phinney Center Gallery, Seattle, WA. Goddard was the Senior Curator of Works on Paper, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas until 2019 and has been a member of Print Council of America, since 1986, serving as its President from 1997-2001.
Statement from the Artist:
In the spirit of beautiful decay, these etchings and engravings made over the past few years focus on the remains of specific trees observed in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. I do not think of them as stumps or logs, since those terms conjure up human intervention with axes and saws. I consider them to be ruins or horizontal trees that have succumbed to old age, disease, beetle infestations or fire, conditions which are often amplified by the ramifications of climate change. As they slowly return to the earth, they reveal much of their beautifully complex biological structure as well as their co-existence with other life forms.