Shannon Woode
Shannon@ShannonWoode.com
shannon@shannonwoode.com
Artist Bio
My creative education began early and was rooted in our Northern way of life. Singing, piano, storytelling, writing, drawing, traditions of food, fabrics, and a general openness to creativity and beauty were the teachings of my heritage. I added a BSc in biology/genetics and a BSW/childwelfare which became my primary lifework. I began to paint in 2006 and these three disciplines have become my personal trilogy, providing a lens for seeing How Things Are.
I began my discovery of painting on the Sunshine Coast and continue to seek private instruction, classes and study groups with its many inspired and generous artists. My husband, a performing songwriter, reflects the courageous life of an artist to me daily. My daughter shows me what the pure human spirit is capable of. I am truly living in a community that nurtures creativity in every cove. And underscoring all this is the voice of many elders who have called my attention to the brushing strokes that matter most. That connect all things. Ourselves included.
I have been painting and showing my work in evolving series. They have moved through Listen to the Land (the wilderness speaks as we are ready to hear), The Witness (the creatures call us back to our consciousness), Finding Our Way (salmon migration, we move forward, ultimately finding our origins), The Ancestors (provide the rooting and guidance we need in this journey), Where the Worlds Meet (coastal lines form cultural points of connection, stand us at the edge of what we know and requiring new possibility) and Reconciliation (discovering our place of openness and ability to live fully together without losing our truth). This last series brought me full circle, really discovering what a love story entails. It then formed a new question, one of living this out. Motion and Light (raptors, creatures of awe, who live naturally – calmly and powerfully - between the worlds of sky, land and water) is a chance to consider the spirit of this work. The Keepers (ancient ones) reflects on the responsibility we hold within the natural world. How do we hold that awe and honour the magnificence, the vulnerability. Come join my walk through the ancient forests. At One called out our own vulnerability. And when that happens it is our spirit that shows up. The next series was of just that....Living Spirits, the legacy that we will leave when our body has finished its physical work. I explored this as the ancient ones were cut down from our forests. It begged another question. One that is not answered and is looming over us all. The series was called This Land We Share. The work of photographer then painter then traditional spirit portrait of the great grizzly connects us all in different ways to the relationship and responsibility we have.
I am More: conversations of land and sea...
You may not yet know
But I am more than the shoreReceiving your sprayThat waters the lifeThat grows within my world.I am more than the cliffsThat tower highAnd make you rage in volumesWhen I stand fast against your powerOr crumble into your storm.
I am also there in your deepest fathomsHolding you up from the bottom
Cradling the beginnings of life that team through you
And holding sure anchorages
Over which you have freedom to flow.
SW
Where the Worlds Meet: at your edges...
Curiosity gathers
Pushes to the verge
Just where the ground
Shores up and drops off
Into a vast light
Reassuring you with reflections
of what you know
Compelling you to the search
Beyond the brink
SW
The Ancestors: give us the starting point...
There are places like this
There are moments that bear down
Into the footings and the pressing of the rock
Into bygone worlds and those to come
That show themselves with brilliant display
Here from where you stand
SW
