Artist Statement:
The materials I choose are pregnant with meaning and create their own visual vocabulary, which I – as the artist – then adopt and lift into the artmaking process. The materials are like tactile stand-ins that have the capacity to point to more ethereal, intangible constructs. I work with animal gut, beeswax, fabric, wire, book pages and light, re-contextualizing them to create installations and 3-D sculptures that beckon viewers to experience embodiment, femininity and spirituality.
Biographical Information:
Shannon Newby is an artist working with beeswax and mixed media. She earned her BA in education and art at Taylor University, and is currently pursuing a Masters in the study of Theology and the arts at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia where she is writing a thesis about community art centers. When she has time to get into the studio, she works on pod and urchin-like forms incorporating old books, animal gut, tree branches and beeswax.
A few snippets from a recent article in Comment magazine:
Originally from Indianapolis, Shannon always wanted to be an artist "when she grew up" and her parents encouraged her art-making. "My favorite Christmas gift growing up was a set of Bob Ross oil paints," she reflects, sitting at her kitchen table. "I went through a season where I stapled or nailed everything to the wall. I'd change it weekly as inspiration hit. One day it'd be southern paraphernalia strapped to the wall—the next, the parts of my disassembled bike. My first installation pieces, you could say! Even in elementary school, I was working to incorporate different elements into my art." Back in Shannon's kitchen I discover that encaustic art wasn't her first choice. As a child, she dreamed of animating twenty-first century sleeping beauties for Disney; as a teenager she'd planned on a career in interior design. It wasn't until 2006 that she arrived at the hot wax appliqués of encaustic art. "I think I was pretty much sold on day one when I learned you had to use a heat gun or blow-torch to fuse the wax. My blow-torch and I have been inseparable ever since."