Stephen Hazel began as a potter, sculptor, and print artist, and completed his studies with Japan's great woodblock artist Hagiwara Hideo. Hazel has taught extensively and has been visiting artist at the University of Iowa, the University of Washington, and Cranbrook Academy.

He was invited to be one of twenty-five artists representing the United States in an exhibition with the Contemporary Print Artists of Paris. He is artist-in-residence at the Abbey of San Vincenzo in southern Italy and a co-founder and artist-in-residence of Seattle's experimental workshop + = studio blu = + whose focus is art on paper.

International exhibitions include Japan, China, Portugal, Italy, Israel, France, Mexico, and Canada. National exhibitions include Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum, Walker Art Center, Rhode Island School of Design, Carnegie Institute, Seattle Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, and The Henry Gallery at the University of Washington.

Selected collections include The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Collection of the Vatican, Abbazia di San Vincenzo al Volturno, The Brooklyn Museum, Library of Congress, Philadelphia Museum, Detroit Institute of the Arts, Seattle Art Museum, Microsoft, and the Cities of Seattle; Kobe, Japan; and Beersheba, Israel.