Pursuing your passion no matter what with Shawn Marshall

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Hi Shawn, it’s a pleasure to have you and thank you for taking your time to answer my questions. Let’s start with a few basics for people who are not familiar with you and your work. Who are you and what do you do?

Hi Nina – thanks so much for this opportunity! I am an American mixed-media artist and visual arts educator based in Louisville, Kentucky. 

Before speaking about your work, I’d like to go back in time with you for a moment. Do you remember the first time you got in touch with visual art?

I grew up overseas (Cyprus, Lebanon, and Germany) and some of my earliest memories are “site-seeing” visits to museums and historical sites with my family. I was quite young and can remember my siblings and I complaining about being “dragged around” to all these places. I am of course grateful now for those experiences, and convinced they’re the reason I understood from a very early age I was an artist. I have a memory of seeing an exhibit of impressionist painters like Monet, Cezanne, and Pissaro for the first time sometime in the 70’s and falling in love with their work. I dreamed of being a painter some day and spent countless hours drawing and sketching growing up. My mother wrote in my baby book that at the age of 5 I said I wanted to be an artist and a teacher when I grew up. Here I am a 55 and that is exactly what I’m doing. (Though I did take a bit of a detour first.)

I have a memory of seeing an exhibit of impressionist painters like Monet, Cezanne, and Pissaro for the first time sometime in the 70’s and falling in love with their work.

That sounds like a childhood dream come true. With “detour” I guess you are referring to studying Architecture? I have interviewed artists in the past who shifted from Architecture to Fine Arts and I have the impression it’s not an uncommon thing to happen…

Despite really wanting to attend art school for college, my parents convinced me to go to architecture school. They wanted me to be able to support myself after college and felt architecture school would better prepare me to do that. I acquiesced because I figured as long as I had a studio space to work, it wouldn’t make that much of a difference! Architecture, Art, it’s all the same, right? ha! I completed a Bachelor of Architecture at the University of Kentucky in 1992 and went on to attain a Master of Architecture from Cornell University in 1996. During my graduate studies at Cornell, I took some sculpture classes and completed a Minor in Fine Arts. I was fortunate enough to study under artist Jack Squire and fell in love with plaster. Those were the first (and last) formal art classes I took, but were enough to solidify my passion, confidence, and drive to create art. Despite working as an architectural designer for almost 20 years, I continued to make art over that timeframe. I worked in my basement, outside in my yard, rented cheap studio spaces, wherever I could find to work. It wasn’t until I turned 40 that I decided to leave the field of architecture, obtain another masters degree (this time in teaching) and devote more time to my art career. I’ve never regretted it.

I worked in my basement, outside in my yard, rented cheap studio spaces, wherever I could find to work. It wasn’t until I turned 40 that I decided to leave the field of architecture.

Let’s speak about your work now. You create colourful mixed media pieces – mostly on panel and canvas, but also sculptures- that explore the connection between the human presence and the environment. They are full of different textures, patterns, colours, and I’m a big fan of them!

Thank you so much, Nina. I really appreciate your support of my work! My media and work has evolved and changed over the last 20+ years. Early on, I worked in plaster and mixed media creating abstract sculpture and mixed media wall pieces. I then shifted to oil paint and painted ethereal landscapes for the next 8-10 years. My last shift was back to mixed media & acrylic paint, which occurred during the beginning of the Covid Pandemic. In 2020-21, before a vaccine was available, I worked from my home studio as a remote teacher because of a heart condition. I also continued my art practice in the same space in which I taught. This forced me to deal with the large amount of materials used in both teaching and in my art practice, and I became acutely aware of my own personal consumption and waste. Prices for paint and materials increased and/or were not always available during this time either, so I began collecting found and discarded materials such as paper, cardboard, used shopping bags, paper towels, etc. I scoured hardware stores for gallons of customer-returned house paint because it was much cheaper.

Other materials such as discarded wallpaper, tissue paper, and scraps of lace were donated to me by friends and family. These materials became my new media and continue to be what I use in my work today.  

Is there any piece or series you’d like to speak about more in detail?

“I Can See Clearly Now” was a breakthrough piece for me at the end of 2021-early 2022, during which time I made a big shift in materials and expression/style. I was scheduled to have a solo show at a gallery in Louisville, KY in the Fall of 2021, but walked away from the opportunity because of the way the gallery owner treated me leading up to the exhibition. It felt scary at the time, but it turned out to be a great gift. With no exhibition on the horizon I felt like I had nothing to lose. The uncertainty of my work/exhibitions and the stress of Covid for someone with a heart condition caused a great deal of stress and anxiety. I was not feeling led to paint landscapes during this time. They did not feel relevant nor were they helping me expend some of my anxious energy.

The physicality of painting large mixed media abstracts on my studio floor helped me express myself in a way that landscapes could not.

Having no exhibition on the horizon and not knowing where my work was heading actually afforded me the freedom to experiment with materials and ideas without any expectations. “I Can See Clearly Now” was one of the first pieces to come out of that experience. The title came from the song by Jimmy Cliff but it was more reflective of the feelings of clarity I had after creating it. Completing it was a pivotal moment in my career. I’m happy to say it was selected for the cover of Artrepreneur’s Art Book, 1st Ed.

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