Joselyn Andreasen

Joselyn Andreasen

[BFA] Studio Art – Printmaking

I make collaged installations of my prints to recall what it feels like to be walking in the woods or on the prairie. I use plants that I’ve interacted with in their environment. I deviate from the tradition of print, (making multiples in an edition), to my advantage by printing editions in varied colors. The differences evoke the ground, foliage, and sky. I find symbols in my representations of plant life– shapes that are familiar and comfortable to repeat with my hand– and they become stencils. Then, the pieces are assembled into a collage. My decisions are spontaneous and dependent by what is left after each shape I cut. Woodblock reduction, intaglio, and monotype are the print methods I use to create abstract landscapes out of repeated forms. My work is informed by my study of native or naturalized plant species of Nebraska. I find it important to use real plants in my imagined landscape.

The idea for my installation begins with observational drawing and plein air watercolor painting. I spend time outside, enjoying the beauty there and also working in habitat management in both rural and urban Nebraska. I include the figure as a symbol of our cohabitation with the environment and how we are dependent on its ecosystem services, (food, shelter, and water etc.) Being surrounded by fresh air and plants induces calmness and happiness. I let the figure disappear into the pattern of prints because that is what it’s like to let the wilderness ensnare my senses. The immersive-ness of my work reflects how a walk in the woods or on the open prairie contributes to a person’s well-being. I want my installation to encourage others to investigate the names and habits of plants that they encounter and to dedicate some time to being observant in the outdoors.

Joselyn Andreasen is a Lincoln, Nebraska-based printmaker and painter, expecting to graduate December 2024 with a BFA and an option in Printmaking from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her artwork draws from her career as a habitat manager and highlights discoveries made in a specialized, sustainable form of landscape labor. She worked under Karen Kunc, the director of Constellation Studios, as an Undergraduate Creative Activities and Research Experience intern for two years between 2021-2023. She was featured in the “Cedar Point Times” newsletter and awarded the “Ten Free Trees for Fall Planting” grant from the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum the summer of 2024. She was chosen for the Surface Impressions national juried exhibition at the LUX Center for the Arts and Constellation Studios in Lincoln, NE the Spring of 2024. She is also the two-time recipient of the Elgas Project Grant to fund her work in reduction woodblock and Mokuhanga printing in 2021 and 2024 as well as being nominated for the Howard award in 2024. In January of 2024 was her first solo-show in the Medici Gallery in Richards Hall. After graduation she wants to find a job that is devoted to environmental sustainability and do the work that is needed to help mitigate the climate crisis

Instagram: @joselyn.andreasen