Getting noticed in a unique way

All artwork created by Stephanie Golden

By Jennifer Palmberg
The Collegian

Getting started as an artist can be very difficult, but one Fresno State alumna found a way to display her work without having to rely on galleries to give her a chance.

Stephanie Golden had doodled all her life, but it wasn’t until 1999 that she started taking her art seriously. After taking a few art classes on top of all her other classes, Golden decided it was time to start displaying and selling her work. That’s when she began looking online at T-shirt companies.

The first company to use her work was Cosmic Shirts, but more recently she has been selling her art to cafepress.com.

“Art galleries don’t sell controversial pieces,” Golden said. “With all of the stuff going on in the world and with my mother sick and dying a lot of my recent work has come out weird and angry.”

Golden now gets her art pressed on to T-shirts, tanktops and handbags, and copied on to pins and postcards. She does mostly paintings but she doesn’t like to limit herself to just one art medium.

She has had one showing in New York at the Agora Gallery in 2003 and she designed the cover of the Fresno State women’s studies’ department’s “Voices Journal.”

She said she likes T-shirt art because “it’s fun and anybody can do it.” She said selling art on T-shirts and handbags doesn’t bring in a lot of money and she’s not in it for the income. It serves as a way to get free advertising.

Golden admits she didn’t plan on being an artist. She got both her bachelors degree in social work in 2002 and master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling in 2005 from Fresno State. Golden was planning on going to Washington to continue her education but her mom became ill and she decided to stay and take care of her.

“I feel that if you’ve gone through pain or forced adversity, art feels liberating,” she said. “It’s nice to show [my mom] my pieces and I know she’s proud of what I’ve done. It is comforting to know that my art is something no one can take away from me.”

To view more of her work, visit http://www.cafepress.com/startleart3.

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