Bio

Short Version

Born in Edmonton, Stephanie earned a BA from the University of Alberta with a major in drama and a minor in art, and studied traditional weaving arts under several teachers in Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina.  

She is an artist, writer, and traveller, and her current mission is to help people who have lost touch with their creativity find their way back to their creative selves. She blogs about creativity and her own creative adventures at stephaniemedford.com and she teaches workshops in printmaking and mixed media.

Long Version

Stephanie Medford is an artist, writer, and traveler. Born in Edmonton, she earned a BA from the University of Alberta with a major in drama and a minor in art. Having always been interested in art and craft, in university she created set designs for student plays and contemplated a career in the theatre.

After graduating, however, she was inspired by postcards that she had collected on a road trip around the United States, and began producing linocut postcards of Edmonton landmarks printed on Edmonton maps, which she sold at local markets. For ten months in 2011 and 2012, she traveled to Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina to study traditional weaving arts under several teachers. The discoveries she made on that trip encouraged her to commit more time to art making and she reduced her day job hours to part­-time.

She continued making linocuts but began to feel more inspired by nature than by architecture, thanks to frequent backpacking trips in the Rockies, though she continued experimenting with layering linocut over maps. At this time, she also began making paper mache sculptures of human organs, inspired by a trip to the museum of medical history in Philadelphia, and covering them in maps. In 2015, Stephanie’s work with maps led the Edmonton Resilience Festival to commission a map of their festival grounds, which was displayed and used in promotional materials that year and in 2016. That year she was also asked to create a window display for the Meterra Hotel as part of the Green Window City Project, for which she drew on images from a trip to Egypt and Turkey. In 2016, she was asked to create an installation for the Glenrose Foundation’s Courage Gala to depict the accomplishments of the five years of the gala.

She currently displays her artwork and craft products at markets and group art shows. Her first solo show is taking place next April at the Paint Spot. In addition to making art, her current mission is to help people who have lost touch with their creativity find their way back to their creative selves. She blogs about creativity and her own creative adventures at stephaniemedford.com and she teaches workshops in printmaking, mixed media, and mindfulness and the creative process.