ARTIST STATEMENT
Drawing from a mix of local, repurposed and commercially available materials, I seek to make things that feel familiar but cannot be identified, to evoke beings we might see in the wild but cannot place. I want to invoke a sense of recognition and also dislocation, to provoke more questions than answers. I hope that my work might burrow or fly or float, becoming something new to each viewer, causing them to rethink their place in the world. I hope that by combining natural and human made materials I evoke a recognition of reciprocity, interconnection and interdependence, that my reverence for the more-than-human world will inspire that reverence in others.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Shanna Robinson makes art inspired by the natural world. Working in fibers, sculpture and printmaking, she creates a varied body of work connected by a love of nature. Concocting dyes and inks from plants, weaving with plant, animal, or reclaimed materials and making prints based on signature marks such as tree rings and fingerprints, she seeks to work in ways that connect her with the more-than-human world. She is a retired Professor of Art from North Central Michigan College, where she taught art history, design, textiles and ceramics. Robinson holds a BFA and an MFA from Eastern Michigan University.
© Shanna G. Robinson