ARTIST: Shauna Le Ann Smith

WEBSITE: https://www.shaunaleannsmith.work/
INSTAGRAM: @shaunaleannsmith

STATEMENT: Filled with grief, I have learned papermaking. Taking something whole, breaking it apart, and making it into another form of wholeness is the essence of both papermaking and grief. The papermaking process involves separation, maceration, and forming of new life; the grieving process involves a similar evolution. There is a poetic connection between working with pulp and water and the cyclical patterns of nature—a place in which even endings have potential.
Embedded into these plant fibers are images of my healing, including my longing for and celebrations of wholeness, connection, hope, slowness, and the comfort of the natural world. The details, which exist in the fiber qualities of the paper and in the subtle imagery that is embossed or poked into the sheet, are only noticeable through sustained attention and close proximity. The work requires a level of patience and care in both its making and viewing. The quiet visual qualities are intended to create a viewing experience that is meditative and slow. The lack of depiction mimics the meditative process of closing one’s eyes to the outside world. I am interested in what comes to viewers when an artwork is not shouting with imagery or narrative and, instead, they are faced with quietness. How might such subtlety challenge the sensitivity of our senses?