Steve Durland

I create digital imagery from bits and pieces of nature - leaves, twigs, bark, small animals, bones, eggs - and reproduce those images in large scale formats such as stretched canvas prints, outdoor banners and multi-media assemblage. Many of these pieces are featured in Woodland Banners, a permanent outdoor installation of large banners in the woods on our property. My wife, Linda Burnham, has written poems to go with many of the banners and we've printed those poems on outdoor plaques to form the "Woodland Banners Poetry Walk." I also combine digital images into assemblage pieces with salvaged wood and beeswax-manipulated surfaces. I have a yurt studio and gallery called Bourbon, Dogs & Art because those are three of my favorite things, plus I have a long-term fantasy of creating a combination dog park, art gallery and speakeasy. But that's a story for another time.

For the past 40 years I've worked as an artist, writer, magazine editor, nonprofit arts organization administrator, teacher, designer and web consultant in varying combinations, and occasionally I've found myself trying to do just about all of them at the same time. My formal education is as a visual artist with a BFA from the University of South Dakota and an MFA from the University of Massachusetts. I've been a consultant in arts and marketing to the country of El Salvador, and co-author, with my wife Linda Frye Burnham, of The Citizen Artist: 20 Years of Art in the Public Arena, published by Critical Press. My wife and I live just outside of Saxapahaw, NC, with a herd of cats, a pack of dogs, a flock of chickens and a pair of geese.