Shawn Marie Hardy

I AM A PROUD AWARD-WINNING, JURIED MEMBER OF EBSQ

A LITTLE HISTORY

I am fortunate to have been brought into the world by two very creative parents so it was inevitable that I would have an interest in art. Most of what I know is self taught, although I did spend one school year totally immersed in art classes at the City College of San Francisco from 1993 to 1994. Afterwards I spent the next several years traveling throughout New Zealand, Australia, and the U.K. In the interim I had my daughter, Ella, my current muse.

I create images that are emotive and tantalizing,...

I AM A PROUD AWARD-WINNING, JURIED MEMBER OF EBSQ

A LITTLE HISTORY

I am fortunate to have been brought into the world by two very creative parents so it was inevitable that I would have an interest in art. Most of what I know is self taught, although I did spend one school year totally immersed in art classes at the City College of San Francisco from 1993 to 1994. Afterwards I spent the next several years traveling throughout New Zealand, Australia, and the U.K. In the interim I had my daughter, Ella, my current muse.

I create images that are emotive and tantalizing, impressions representing the core of my imagination, from transient thoughts and deep rooted memories to endured tribulations. I am fascinated by dreams and the haunting images the mind conjures up while we're asleep. Most of my work is as spontaneous as these unconsious images and I tend to work directly on the canvas, rather than drawing a preliminary study or mixing paints separately on a palette.

I am also interested in spiritualism, not necessarily in the sense that the living communicate with the dead, but more in the sense that I question where our energy goes after we die. In the wonderment of these questions I create dreamy landscapes that represent the state of passing from present life into the next state of being. They are both light and dark, depicting both joy and melancholy, often with the focal point being a window of light or an ethereal, winged being on a path into the unknown. I sometimes incorporate copies of vintage photos into these landscapes, visages of unknown people who have passed on, in order to give them a purpose and to honor those lives that are long forgotten.

I am a perpetual student of art and art history and I continue to study the work of masters, past and present. I am inspired by many great artists and it is my talented uncle, Mark Esper, who gave me my very first drawing lesson and whose own work has been instrumental in fueling my desire to persevere in this challenging career. He is finally getting the recognition he deserves and is a true genius.