Stephanie Woodson is Filling that Frame, With Something

Above: Stephanie Woodson’s “A Legacy of Daughters on the Altar,” a tribute to Fisk women (left); “The Griot,” Condra Ridley portrait, hangs at the Pontiac Branch Library, 2215 South Hanna Street (right)

At Bishop Luers High School, 2006 graduate Stephanie Woodson filled the frame...with activities.  She was in the chamber ensemble, concert choir, in spring musicals, key club, peer tutorials, a group called Students Against Destruction Decision.  But no art, save a 2-D art class.

At and after Fisk University in Nashville, the 2010 HBCU grad, kept filling that frame.  She started as a nursing major but received her bachelor’s in psychology. She came back home and enrolled at IPFW, got her master’s in Sociology.  She’s going back to school in June for her master’s in education in the counseling department.  But still, no art.

“Art has always been something that I do to express myself creatively, just to relax,” Woodson said.  “As a child, I said, I wanted to be an artist but never thought about selling art.” 

As a part-timer artist, Woodson is selling her work now, canvas-pieces and even on coffee mugs.  “it’s a very cool feeling, but it also can be overwhelming and strange at times [that] people actually dig what I do,” she said.

Woodson will be 32 this year and she kind of feels like her style is locked in.  And that’s not a bad thing.  If nothing else, she’s going all in on it, “trying to own it a little more, not being afraid to own it.”  It’s that faceless/bright-color style, no dimensions and all-story, she’s channeling, inspired by the Synthia Saint James’ of the world.  “People can see themselves in artwork,” she said.  Deceptively simple styles are all about getting better at one thing, how to complicate the uncomplicated.  Woodson has recently incorporated jewels and beads into her canvas pieces. 

A major influence in her life is her Zeta Phi Beta sorority and it, and her HBCU love, shows up a lot in her work.  She said those themes are “overflowing” works of self-identity.

Her largest canvas came from the annual-now Middle Waves Music Fest for their selfie station.  Right now, she has five unfinished pieces that had to be paused for getting married and school’s coming up.  Those things aren’t “happening intentionally” right now, Woodson said.  It’s a deliberate choice; she’s choosing the time and date to finish. 

Woodson’s work can be found on Instagram: lovelucine