Shannon Belthor

I’m an artist and artisan, making sculptural objects for the joy of imagining and actualizing with a wide spectrum of materials and mediums. The interplay of stillness and movement is at the core of my love of sculpting. I see my work as aesthetic engines radiating aliveness and delight in being.

My studio work focuses on the current explorative series, interspersed with commissioned works. The current series is Spiritus Naturalis, in which I'm combining Madrona branches; copper; and my handmade, variously pigmented flax fiber paper to create gestural nature spirit figures.

The fleshy, sensual Madrona trees on the island provide branches ideal for playing with creature forms. Reimagining and rearranging them reveals each nature spirit in the series through the process of making. With the varied banding, I play with sequence, rhythm and flow, inviting the eyes and spirit along the serpentine curves.

The several most recent series of light-emitting sculptures explored organic curves, natural forms, bright colors and soulful radiance. These works are of the same materials as the branch figures, though with copper armatures and backlit paper surfaces.

I love the oscillation between open-ended exploration and site-specific commissioned works that may or may not be light-emitting. Commissioned works flow out the explorative series, and ideas that arise in responding to requests often flow back into the explorations.

In 2001, I completed a 3-year Master of Fine Arts degree in Artisanry from UMass/Dartmouth, which deepened the roots of both my artistic and artisanal work, and unveiled a life’s worth of creative potentials.