August 2019: Shannon Weber & Sarah Waldron

Shannon Weber works are inspired by vision and a collection of materials from nature, the ocean, and various odd forgotten objects. She feels each found and collected material type have a narrative all their own. “I pound materials with rocks for marks and to gain flexibility, set things on fire, collect local wax from bee keepers to make my wax medium. I keep myself highly entertained by collecting materials weekly in the forest or on the beach. I stack them around my bench to keep my eye on them as I work on objects with layers of stitching, paper, and wax and they often find their way into a current work. I keep all of my options open with materials and time. I have thrived on the curiosity of how things work, often treating my studio as a working lab.”

Sarah Waldron paintings up close are abstract in nature but step across the room and the image has a photo realistic quality. Her fascination with water as imagery has become a long-term study. Water as movement, ever changing patterns of color and value and an essence for all forms of life on earth. In the painting process she builds thin layers of oil paint from dark to light and as the image evolves. She makes things up creating shine where there is none or ripples that don’t exist. She works to portray the layers of water: the debris that lies on the water floor, what hovers beneath the surface, what pierces the surface of the water, what floats on top, what reflects from the sky and ripples of a fleeting moment. “The depth and mystery of the layers of water are what I strive to capture.”