Genie Shenk

1937 - 2018

Genie Shenk August 3, 1937 - August 19, 2018 Seattle Genie Shenk, a long-time resident of Solana Beach, California, died peacefully on August 19, 2018, in Seattle, Washington.
She was born August 3, 1937, in Montgomery, Alabama, to Mildred and George Stephenson. Her younger brother, William, was born in 1942. George's work for the U.S. Forest Service brought the family to live in Atlanta; Nashville; New Orleans; Forest, Mississippi; and Nacogdoches, Texas. Most beloved by Genie was New Orleans, where she was able to visit the city art museum, take her first art classes, and spend time with her dear Aunt Gene. She also treasured family visits to relatives in upstate New York and in Georgia's hill country.
Genie earned her bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. degrees in English from Rice University in Houston, where she met her future husband, Norman "Al" Shenk. She taught English at Texas Southern University from 1963 to 1964.
Genie and Al married in San Francisco in 1965, the year Al earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from Stanford University. They lived in Queens, New York, during Al's postdoctoral appointment at Columbia University. In New York, they had their first child, Laurie, in 1967. They moved to Solana Beach in 1968 when Al joined the faculty of the University California San Diego. Their second daughter Carol was born in 1970.
Genie began seriously painting, collage, and printmaking in the 1970s. In the 1980s she worked in fiber arts, creating quilts of handmade paper she pressed from natural and recycled materials. In 1982, influenced by Jungian philosophy, Genie began recording her dreams in visual form, a practice she would continue for over 30 years. In 1987, in the Master of Fine Arts program at UCLA, Genie began to shift her focus to book arts.
While teaching color theory at San Diego Mesa College, Genie was encouraged to start an experimental book arts course, which proved popular. She taught book arts at Mesa College and the Athenaeum School of the Arts in La Jolla for 17 years. Genie was co-founder of Mesa Arts Press and a founding member of San Diego Book Arts. She developed many close and enduring friendships through her teaching and collaborative projects.
Genie's work has been widely exhibited and is most significantly represented in the University of Washington Library Special Collections, the University of California San Diego Special Collections, the Athenaeum Music and Arts Library in La Jolla, the Long Beach Museum of Art, and the Library of the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
The Shenks' Solana Beach home, with Genie's art studio and succulent garden, reflected her love of discovering and creating surprising and harmonious visual relationships between natural and industrial forms, found objects, and their collection of original art and crafts.
Genie and Al enjoyed the world together with their daughters and friends, sharing their love of art, music, literature, architecture, film, food, sports, animals, and nature. They loved walking on the beach and by the San Elijo Lagoon near their home. Genie faithfully attended Jazzercise from the 1970s until she was 80.
Al passed away in July, 2015. Genie is survived by her daughter, Carol, and Carol's partner Abraham Taylor, of Seattle, Washington; her sister-in-law Sally Stephenson, her niece Jill Stephenson, Jill's husband Bryan Allison, and their children, Sam and Abbie Grace, of Dallas, Texas; and by her nephew Ben Stephenson and niece Molly Stephenson of Longview, Texas. She will also be remembered by Al's nephew and nieces their families: Mike, Justin, Katie, Sarah, and Pat Jarvis; Judy and John Corcoran and their children Ellie and Marley; Debbie Stott; and Mike Weatherwax and his daughters Michelle and Melissa.
Genie's intelligence, kindness, talent, humor, and grace were a gift to everyone who knew her, and she is sorely missed. Family and friends will celebrate Genie's life at the Athenaeum Music and Arts Library in La Jolla on October 14, 2018, from 2pm to 5pm, formally gathering to share remembrances at 3pm.