Sean Starwars (born Sean Stewart) is an American relief printmaker specializing in woodcut printmaking. He lives and works in Laurel, Mississippi, and is a member of the Outlaw Printmakers, a collective within contemporary American printmaking.
Biography
Starwars earned his BA from Old Dominion University in 1996 and his MFA from Louisiana State University in 1999. He adopted the professional name "Starwars" as a marketing tool for his woodcuts. As he explained, "My real last name is pretty common... This is a way I could stand out." He has worked as an adjunct professor, a janitor, and a used car salesman before becoming a full-time printmaker.
Career
Starwars is associated with the "Outlaw printmaking" movement, a group that includes Tom Huck, Richard Mock, Dennis McNett, Sue Coe, Bill Fick, Michael Barnes, and Cannonball Press.
His original "Country Croc" woodcut was featured as an example of the reductive approach to relief printmaking in the textbook Printmaking: A Complete Guide to Materials & Processes by Bill Fick and Beth Grabowski.
In 2011, Starwars undertook a project called "One Woodcut a Week", in which he completed one 30"×20" woodcut every week for an entire year.
His work can be found in numerous public and private collections, on T-shirts, book covers, television, and skateboards. He makes approximately a dozen visiting artist appearances per year at universities and art institutions across the United States.
