ARTIST STATEMENT
My art is a celebration of women. Whether I am creating a mixed media piece about self-love, motherhood, or the ways in which women are marginalized, the common thread is that they are all female experiences. I weave my background in textiles into my pieces with my use of embroidery. I use the often overlooked and traditionally female needlework as a reclamation. My latest series, Ornamental, plays with the ways in which society reduces women to unserious decorative objects, both past and present. As women gained entry to the workforce, were they valued for their contributions and hard work or are they merely ornamental? Society saw women as pretty flower arrangements to be admired, or as wallpaper that quietly serves as an attractive background. This objectification of women is reductive, and renders her humanity invisible. In this series I invite you to glimpse the human behind the wallpaper.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Shannon is a mixed media and fiber artist living in Aptos, CA. As a child, she spent summers with her grandmother and great-grandmother, digging through drawers of old textiles, sewing scraps, and embroidering samplers. She has happy memories bonding with her grandmother over these heirloom textiles, learning the history (or “HER-story”) behind these pieces that the women in her family had created. Through these textiles, she felt a connection to both her female ancestors and women in general. Living in Europe during college deepened her connection to the arts. She was especially intrigued in art as a powerful medium of storytelling through beautiful tapestries. Interested in the human mind and heart, she earned a B.S. in Psychology and a minor in Art History. Much of her work today is influenced by therapeutic psychology, and her own experiences as a woman. She has been featured in several publications. Her work has been juried into national exhibitions, and she has collectors all over the world.
© Shannon Knowlton