getting to know renee stien

Renee Stien

Meet another Roc Nicholas Rubber Stamp Design Team members, Renee Stien.  She describes herself as a "middle-aged, empty-nester-mom from central Minnesota".  She is married, has three wonderful children, two girls and one son.

Renee has an on-going love affair with the whole art process.   She claims, "I use to have hobbies before I discovered art, but I no longer remember what they were."  Her passion with art began when she stumbled onto ATC's about six years ago.  She says the moment she discovered them she inately knew her life would never be the same. 

Renee is always trying to learn more about art.  She buys loads of books, watches hours of You Tube videos, and takes online classes.  Renee is not afraid to ask questions from other artists.  She finds that most of the people are generally happy to answer questions about their art.  Renee confesses, however, that one of the best ways for her to learn about art is simply through trial and error.

Although Renee mostly collages and paints with acrylics, she likes to use rubber stamps for adding depth and layer in her backgrounds.  She thinks stamps are really a great way to add visual interest.  She loves the fact, as she gets more involved using stamps in her work, that she is truly appreciating how using parts of stamps with other mixed media items makes outstanding new and unique pieces of art.

Although Renee admits that her favorite art supplies seemingly change from time to time, she likes to use gesso, acrylic paints and old sheet music in her art.  She finds inspiration in quotes, song lyrics, fun color combinations or the way images just seemingly appear in swirls of paint if you look long enough.

Renee is proud of the accomplishment of just doing art.  She says, "For 40 plus years I had no clue I could create anything art related.  I'm amazed every time something turns out well."