ShannLee I was a missionary kid, exposed as a child to museums and many types of art lessons. As a result of moving around a lot in my youth, I became introduced to a variety of cultures giving me a different perspective on life.
By learning many art skills over the years, I have used my art as a processing tool, allowing me to shift through my thoughts about life. Too many thoughts at the same time cause chaos, so my art seems chaotic but the act of creating causes me to put my thoughts in order. Therefore the art becomes orderly as well. I use my art as a way to look at all angles in order to decide which perspective to look thru. Challenging the normal conceptions in life thus allowing the feeling of vulnerability to show through in the choices of found and made objects is one of my purposes in creating my work. All who view my art are asked to look more closely at the ordinary objects that surround them. By creating images that give them a different point of view and causing them to rethink the permanency of things in this world, I long to take the viewers inside allowing them to participate in my thought process instead of just being onlookers. The purpose of my art is to question the viewer’s preconceived ideas for this is what I use my art for, to challenge my own perspectives.
My art encompasses a wide spectrum of artistic skills, by using all my skills together has helped me develop and mature in all aspects of creativity. The processing of ideas results in the creation of abstract formations of design with an added splash of color. Created with a variety of materials, both found and made, my art shows a rhythmic flow along with dance like strokes. I invite your eyes to feel the emotions that give life to my art. My pieces are based on surrealistic ideas that exist only in my imagination, fragments that become whole as they are created. A lifetime of learning new mediums comes together presenting themselves in an energetic, and curiously childlike form. As a result of my dyslexia, an artistic vision reveals a unique and distinct angle, seeing life from another perspective. Often, my art pieces are created to invite the viewers to become participants, to be a part of the experience of art, rather than just passively enjoying it. My style uses external sources to transform personal experiences into a window allowing the viewers to look beyond their own angle and view to see through the eyes of the artist Shannon Lee.
My work invites the viewer into a world of opposites: brightness, darkness, wonder, horror and breathless intensity. In building this fantasy world, the viewer is invited into the conversation of my crazy dream state.
My conversations are fragmented thoughts. As I string them together I begin to create my reality, my view of the world. Once I complete my thought, a restructuralization happens and the idea evolves from its collision unscathed, a shining splinter of wonderment.