Selective Focus: Shawna Gilmore
Shawna Gilmore has had a busy year, with four shows in eight months, so chances are you’ve seen her sometimes surreal combinations of nature, kids and animals around town. This week in Selective Focus, she talks about her work and what she’ll do with a little bit of down time.
S.G.: I am a visual artist painting primarily in acrylics on wood panels. I occasionally use graphite and paper, my first artistic love. My style is ever-evolving. . . but my current illustrative style came about from a piece I did 3 or so years ago called “Beneath Her Feet” Everything about that piece made sense to me, from the starry sky and trees/roots, to the vintage woman and her farmhouse. It was really a lightbulb piece for me. I had been experimenting with people in my work, women’s faces mostly, but only the vintage characters rang true for me. Somehow their timelessness and history add the genuineness I need for my more narrative images to transcend current times. I also realized I was most interested in telling stories through surrealistic scenarios in my paintings.
My children were just starting to read which renewed my love of literature. Many of my paintings have been spurred on by this awakening. Since then I have taken my characters on all sorts of adventures through Land of Wonder, and Mischief and Other Tales, Nocturne, and A Curious World. I love that through paint I can explore what I’m interested in and take the viewer on a journey.
I’ve been painting since college, but really began using acrylics earnestly about 5 years ago. I realized working from my home studio with children running around didn’t afford me the drying times required for oils. Actually, acrylics are a perfect match for my impatience and ridiculous need to edit. I love painting on the hard stable surface of wood. Even though I paint over the grain, I still appreciate the history and life lived beneath the paint.

You can find me at the following places:
My Website
Etsy
Instagram
Facebook
Lakeside Gallery
UGallery
After 4 exhibits in 8 months, I’m taking a little bit of time to recalibrate this fall. I have one exhibit scheduled in 2017 at a gallery in zumbrota and a few other things in the works, but I’m looking forward to a small breather to catch up on some projects and work on a series I’ve been mulling over for a while. Creativity can easily be stunted if you don’t take time to nourish and stretch yourself outside of the public eye. I, of course, still have my work available at Lakeside Gallery here in Duluth and various online places.
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