Steph Davies
Steph Davies is an illustrative artist who was born and raised in the outskirts of Kansas City, Missouri. At the age of 18, longing to escape the tangled roots of her family tree, she found herself in Chicago studying illustration at SAIC. Davies graduated from the School in 2005 with a BFA and soon found herself calling the city home and carving out a place for herself in the open mic coffeehouse scene where she would spend hours on Monday nights drawing the performers and every once in a while, sing a song herself. These days she calls Milwaukee home where she lives with her husband, musician Matthew Davies. Steph owns and operates a store called The Waxwing that is home to the work of over 90 Chicago, Milwaukee and Madison based artists.
Artist statement: When I was small I used to loathe getting dirty, I would insist on my mouth being wiped between each bite. Somewhere along the way between diapers and getting my first car, I grew to love paint stained clothes and ink stained hands. While my work might reflect those earlier days with the obsessive etching of each and every line carved into the canvas with ink pen, the process is satisfyingly messy. Coffee soaking into canvas into carpet into wood floor. Ink smearing along the side of my right hand smudged onto fingertips imprinted on the sleeves of my shirt. Whether I am drawing a cityscape or a bird in flight, it’s the lines, the textures that always draw me in.