Shawna Gilmore
www.shawnagilmore.com @shawna_gilmore
Born and raised in the Upper Midwest, Shawna draws deep from the winter-forged well of her overactive imagination. Her narrative, vintage-infused paintings explore many topics such as childhood, animals, nature, patterns, humor, metaphors, space, and fairytales. Shawna graduated in 2000 from the University of Minnesota-Duluth with a BFA in Studio Art, with an emphasis on drawing and printmaking. She has exhibited both locally and nationally. Her work is part of private collections worldwide. Shawna lives with her verbally talented husband (Eddy), their twins and a menagerie of critters in a lively neighborhood near lovely Lake Superior.
Artist’s statement:
Mulberry Street is a collection of paintings based on a fictional neighborhood. Just as homes within any neighborhood can vary in style and substance, so too are the homes on Mulberry Street.
Home is a place of retreat and recovery, but also a place of domesticity and work. On Mulberry Street you’ll find homeowners escaping into the wilds of their house like Jane. Others like Timmy and Tina’s family may be busy tidying their house throughout the seasons. Some homes like George’s may experience peculiar events. And still others seem like the set of a woodland storybook.
The concept for this work came one day as I looked out at my own neighborhood and marveled at how varied and unique each home and occupants were. Not only do the people vary in age and stage but we all have different tastes, interests and activities. The beauty of the Mulberry Street series is the endless possibilities it holds. It combines my love of interior/exterior play and builds on characters I’ve introduced in previous work.