Stephanie Shank is an abstract expressionist painter who exhibits with galleries throughout the U.S.A. As a young girl, she watched in fascination as her mother, a painter who studied with Max Beckman and Philip Guston while attending Washington University, expressively applied vivid hues and bold brushstrokes to the canvas. From those closely observed sessions, her intense passion to paint took hold.

Born in St. Louis, MO, 1954, she studied painting at Lindenwood College in St. Charles, Missouri and the University of Missouri in Kansas City where she received her B.F.A. in 1976. The following decade, she applied her creative talents practically through commercial art and window display design for department stores. Those years were punctuated with independent studies with influential mentors and workshops. She moved to the Southwest desert in the late 80's where the stunningly clear light of the Arizona environs illuminated and informed the brilliant hues of her expressionistic paintings. 

Her aim is to release her imagination and shed some light on the darkness of the human condition. Working primarily in mixed media of acrylic, oil sticks, and graphite, her artistic vision expresses the vibrant organic rhythms of the inner narrative. Her paintings come from emotionally charged personal experiences, expressing the universal joy that lies within all soundings of love and life.