Printmaker Shelley Thorstensen was born in 1953 in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Thorstensen received a BFA, Cum Laude, in painting from Syracuse University, School of Visual & Performing Arts, in Syracuse, NY, and an MFA from the Tyler School of Art of Temple University, in Elkins Park, PA, winning the Lester & Viola Hecht Award for Printmaking.

Recent expositions include The Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia, PA:This is the Smoke from when the Horses Left in 2011, The Woodmere Art Museum, Chestnut Hill, PA: Counterpoint: the leap from Vision to Print in 2010, and The Print Center Philadelphia, PA in 2008.