The posters for this show use jigsaw pieces of the work, an apt metaphor for the work itself.

Stevenson works slowly and with great precision and attention to detail on etching plates, taking hours to smooth the edges; weeks to create the image. After all this painstaking care, he would come in with a wild and confusing construct surrounding the image. Or another pattern; hours spent creating an image, and then a stencil cut and placed to block printing of part of the image. Coming from the University of Minnesota and a more traditional printmaking emphasis to work with Susan Loonsk and William Morgan, Stevenson made a conscious decision to “honor the gift before (him),” letting his work relax and become more open.

Working in mixed media, Stevenson uses a palette skewed just off the primaries, working with a cooler yellow, a cyan sliding towards turquoise blue, and a warmed and softened magenta. The images are  layered, with elements collaged or worked on clear mylar. The works on canvas are not exempt; pieces are built up, or cut away to show what lies behind.

Stevenson says that some of his work is to experiment, and some pieces have meaning. From his artist's statement: “Sometimes my work takes on the form of a conversation between my conscious self and my unconscious self. Here I get a chance to speak to all of my associated daemons.” The titles of the pieces work with the art to make a new poetry; “The Perfection of Infinite Sleep” and “Brick Angel” are two examples. The work shown is not simple, or easy to understand. One must allow oneself to be drawn in to look at the details.

Stevenson is applying at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, looking to earn his Master of Fine Arts degree. Please go and appreciate his work before he's gone.