Stephanie Merchant Johnson's Page

Hi! I'm Stephanie Merchant Johnson and I live off South Powers Blvd. near the airport. I was a single mom of 3 children for 18 years until I married my Knight in Shining Armor on 7/7/07. My husband Greg is a native of Colorado Springs (lucky duck!), but I moved here in 1996 to escape the hectic pace of the Washington, D.C. area.

I'm a "Jill-of-Many-Trades": writer, artist (drawing and painting), muralist, cake decorator, wood crafter, seamstress, scrapbooker, card maker, whittler, calligrapher, and flower arranger, not necessarily in that order. I am currently writing a memoir, and have a Web site, Stephanie's Smorgasbord ( www.stephaniessmoargasbord.com) that shows all the stuff I like to do. My art studio is located at Cottonwood Center for the Arts, 427 E. Colorado Ave. in downtown Colorado Springs. Come see me in Studio 212 on the second floor.

A recycling bin I painted for the City is on display at the City Administration Building, 30 S. Nevada Ave., in the main lobby by the elevators. It's designed after the classic 80's movie, "Labyrinth," starring David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly. It was adopted by Nick Kittle, Fleet Finance Manager, through the City's Adopt-a-Bin Recycling Program.

Discovering YourHub in August 2007 fanned the writing flame inside me until it burned out of control, leading me to resign from the rat race to pursue my writing and art full time. Hopefully soon, you'll be reading about my upcoming book signings! In the meantime, I'm teaching classes at my studio, volunteering every chance I get, and accepting commissions for all types of art and murals.

Many thanks to YourHub for nominating me as 2008 Eastern Zone Citizen Journalist of the Year, and 2008 (overall) YourHub Journalist of the Year. What an honor and privilege!