The Ohio Artist Registry (OAR) is an exciting opportunity for artists to share their work, connect with the creative community, and establish an online presence—all on a free, virtual platform! The OAR encourages artists working in all art forms, throughout Ohio and beyond, to create a profile, which allows them to better promote themselves and their work. Being listed in the OAR provides artists with new opportunities to share their work with clients, galleries, patrons, and audiences. A listing in the OAR does not confer an endorsement, approval, or verification by the Ohio Arts Council.
For more information, contact Kathy Signorino, artist programs director, at kathy.signorino@oac.ohio.gov or 614-728-6140.
Joanne Price
Artist Starpointe StudioCincinnati Ohio 45237 United States Home Phone: 7633006004 Website: https://www.starpointestudio.com/
Bio
Joanne Price is a printmaker specializing in wood engraving, letterpress, and book arts. She earned a MFA in printmaking from the University of Minnesota (2002), and a BFA in Printmaking from Buffalo State University (1997).
Her work has been widely exhibited internationally in over 130 group shows including venues like the Bankside Gallery (London), Washington Printmakers Gallery (Washington D.C.), and Davidson Galleries (Seattle). Price’s work is represented in public collections including: Guangdong Museum of Art (China), Museu da Casa Xilogravura (Brazil), Walker Art Center (Minnesota), Yale (CT), and Vanderbilt (TN).
Price is founder of Starpointe Studio, specializing in wood engraving, letterpress, and book arts. Joanne collaborates with letterpress publishers like Larkspur Press, October Press, and Gaspereau Press doing wood engraved book illustrations for authors, such as Wendell Berry, Barbara Kingsolver, Sena Jeter Naslund, Silas House, Frank X Walker, Harry Thurston and more. Price collaborated with contemporary artists and printed professionally for Highpoint Center for Printmaking in Minneapolis and was the Exhibitions Manager for the Minnesota Center for Book Arts.
Price is President Emeritus of the Wood Engravers’ Network (2014–2020) as well as an elected member of the Society of Wood Engravers since 2016. An experienced educator, Price has taught at multiple universities and led over 40 workshops nationwide, including one at Louis Jou Fondation in France. Joanne has received numerous grants and fellowships, including a Jerome Book Arts Fellowship and an Artist Enrichment Grant through the Kentucky Foundation for Women.
Artist Statement
I work primarily in relief print processes (wood engraving, woodcut, letterpress, moku hanga, linocut) although my practice leads me to sculpture, book arts, and other forms of 2-dimensional art. Most often, my ideas and images are interpreted through the bold but delicate marks of wood engraving. Wood engraving’s intimate scale and slow pace provide a welcome respite from our fast-paced world—engaging my senses of touch, smell, and sight, while feeding my need for quiet concentration and hands-on creative productivity.
In my studio practice, I am not satisfied seeing or exploring only one solution to resolve an idea. Printmaking’s multiple nature allows me to create different versions of the same image on different paper, with different colors, collaged, and in sculptural form. I enjoy when definitions of images and objects are stretched and overlap.
My home and studio are located in Cincinnati, by way of a small rural community in Kentucky. The name Starpointe Studio comes from a place of inspiration – “reach for the stars” – with a genuine concern about preserving dark skies while sharing the fascinating stories and the science we know about these celestial powerhouses and how they connect to lives here and now.
Living for 13 years outside an urban center amplified concerns I already had about our environment. I have witnessed the effects of short-sighted, profit-driven farming practices, irresponsible mining, expanding light pollution, and climate change. I have seen disruption to the natural rhythms and cycles of life in real time. It’s crushing. To help me process these complex situations I create visual studies–employing landscape references to define a sense of place and where we belong in it.
Living in both urban and rural areas, an idea I come back to again and again is the Animal Terrorists series. In this series, my images light-heartedly peck at the idea of terrorism in nature through many topics including land use: garden versus animal habitat competition in an urban environment, the ethical boundaries of genetic modification with a growing concern for food safety and security, the over-use of artificial hormones, chemicals, pesticides and antibiotics in our food sources. I poke fun at the ridiculousness of animals as scapegoats for these man-made fears.
Narrative is a strong element in my work. I find inspiration in folk tales, fairy tales, fables and mythologies from many diverse cultures. These narratives mingle with my imagination and experiences. Many of my compositions combine micro and macro perspectives that create a narrative, examining elements of biology, entomology, and the surrounding environment. Wood engraving has a rich history in science and literature proving a natural vehicle for this exploration. Thomas Bewick, the 18th century English naturalist and wood engraver, John J. Audubon and Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717), a German entomologist, naturalist and scientific illustrator are inspiring mentors for many of my ideas and especially for my ongoing book project, Beneficial Insects.
I am passionate about re-wilding – converting historic grazing, crop land, and yards overrun with non-native plants and restoring native plants to intentionally support birds and insects one small patch at a time. Activities and my art lean into a conservation mindset where I collaborate with organizations, publishers and authors that share the same values.
