We recently connected with Shawna Gilmore and have shared our conversation below.

Shawna, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

The first glimmers of a future as an artist came to me in high school when I started exploring art electives and couldn’t get enough. Art connected with me like nothing else had. My art teacher told me he could see a big coffee table book of my work in it someday. This idea seemed otherworldly, unreal and out of reach. With encouragement from this same terrific art teacher who saw something in me that I could barely see, I applied for a summer art scholarship which paired students with professional artists. For the first time in my life, I was exposed to real, working artists. These professionals were showing in museums, galleries and making weird and wonderful work. My understanding of what being an artist means has changed and shifted over the years as I’ve gained confidence in following my instincts, but ultimately I return to this pivotal time in my life when the seeds of artistic possibility were beginning to take root.

Shawna, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a visual artist, creating narrative, surrealistic paintings that explores themes of connection, nature and everyday life. They are portals to another world where the viewer is free to escape, to daydream. Often humorous, sometimes poignant, my work encourages alternative thinking and a sparking of the imagination.

I began painting as an outlet when my children were very little. I was overwhelmed by the sensory chaos of raising toddlers and the minute they went to bed, I’d squirrel away to a quiet little room in our basement to paint serene and sometimes humorous minimalistic paintings. When my children started school, I really dove into painting full time. Slowly learning my craft and following my artistic whims, my voice began to emerge. Real life spilled onto my panels as I imagined worlds of my own making. I couldn’t paint fast enough for all the ideas I had. With all this work building around me I started showing in galleries, coffee shops, online, anywhere I could to release the work into the world. For years I hustled hard to grow not only my business, but my understanding of materials, techniques and my subjects. All the hustle paid off and I’m grateful to be a place in my career where I can’t keep up with demand. I am so excited to jump into the studio each day and to make work I love.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My mission is to create work I love and that fascinates me. I’m driven not by what people want to see, but by what I want to learn about, explore and enjoy. It can be easy in this industry to become a machine that cranks out the same thing over and over, but I think I’d rather die than make work that bores me. I am hungry to learn and grow and adapt and find new ways of looking at things or looking at things more deeply. When I get overly distracted by social media or money or other business parts of my job, I feel myself become derailed from the course and I become unable to create. The moment I free my mind from these distractions, I’m flooded with ideas. Learning new techniques or honing my craft is another mission in my work. You can always get better.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Five years into my full time art career, my husband and I decided to create a studio for me in an unused porch space off our living room. Shortly after we signed a contract to have this space finished, my husband lost his job. We wrestled with the wisdom of continuing this project, but ultimately decided to go ahead. It was scary not knowing where the money was going to come from. Could we pay the bills? We were walking forward in faith. Ultimately, it was one of the best decisions we’ve made as it gave me space to make larger work and create full collections that would start to generate a decent income. This season of our lives was full of stories like this. Without uncertain times, we wouldn’t have learned such valuable lessons. Stepping into the unknown isn’t as scary anymore and we’ve learned no matter what happens, we’ll be ok. Hard and challenging times give us the fortitude to forge into the future.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.shawnagilmore.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shawna_gilmore/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShawnaGilmoreArt/