Shawn Shawn

CHILDHOOD:
My earliest experiences were creating huge multi-room drawing shoot strategy games in 5th grade on graph paper and getting the game so popular it was banned in school. By Jr. High, I was stenciling all the 70s-80s bands, Led Zepellin, ACDC, Black Sabbath and popular arcade games lettering on my notebooks although I had not a dime to buy one album. Later we dove into Dungeons and Dragons, creating monster cave scenarios that lasted 2 hours minimum in high school until some kid committed suicide and my partner was forced to sell all his D&D books. In college I painted and drew and...

CHILDHOOD:
My earliest experiences were creating huge multi-room drawing shoot strategy games in 5th grade on graph paper and getting the game so popular it was banned in school. By Jr. High, I was stenciling all the 70s-80s bands, Led Zepellin, ACDC, Black Sabbath and popular arcade games lettering on my notebooks although I had not a dime to buy one album. Later we dove into Dungeons and Dragons, creating monster cave scenarios that lasted 2 hours minimum in high school until some kid committed suicide and my partner was forced to sell all his D&D books. In college I painted and drew and ended with a BA in History and Spanish with minors in Art History and Fine Art.

TRAVEL:
Then I went to Poland, seeing the Berlin Wall fall behind the Iron Curtain. Studying abroad in Poland I was exposed to on the anti-communist, anti-fascist painting and theatre posters. Off to Spain to study Spanish in 1993-94, where I studied Spanish masters 1 year in the Prado Museum along with Spanish Islamic architecture also studied by M.C. Escher. One of my favorite pieces in the Prado is the Garden of Heavenly Delights by Hieronymous Bosch in demonic Flemish fashion capturing the madness of religious wars at the time. A close second is the Guernica by Picasso in the Modern Art Museum also in Madrid covering the first fascist bombing of a city with no military targets.

MY WORK:
In my work I try to work with a craftsmanship discipline and remain fresh with various techniques. Recently, I developed my angularity style and am branching out into acrylic, which has its advantages and shortfalls to oil.