Hidden in Plain Sight

A self taught artist, I have always been fascinated with the process of coming into and dissolving out of form and all the stages in between. Using subtle rich materials such as Venetian plaster marble dusts, raw pigments, inks, graphite powders and genuine silver leaf, they all lend themselves to depicting the process of life in transition.

Whether it is a photograph or a painting suggesting a forest, a snow storm, or a tangle of light. There’s an invitation to the viewer to enter into the flow of energy. They go where their imagination takes them.

A Note on the Silver works

On a prepared background l apply genuine silver. I then do a short meditation putting myself in a receptive space asking, if there is anyone or anything on the unseen side that wants to be seen you have seconds! I then apply a catalyst, an acid solution.

I must pay close attention to what I am “sensing” coming through and not to what l am seeing. If l wait for the image to emerge it will be too late. The acid will have burned it beyond recognition. Then as if to catch the essence before l see it l must immediately stop the process. It never ceases to amaze me who or what comes through.

Dagen Julty

Shelley’s work affects me spiritually and emotionally. There is a silent depth that beacons the viewer into a stillness that is both pleasing and challenging. Each piece is a unique world unto itself that invites me to relax in its depths and see the world through new eyes.

S. B. Woods

Shelley’s paintings have a luminosity often found in dense rich fields of color and in the depths of darkness. All is suspended, held in escaping light.

How she touches this space in her work is often deeply human.

The materials she uses are raw and immediate. Silvers dissolve into blacks, cascade downward then spill. This creates an emotionality and intimacy that brings us into the moment, asking us to meet our own tenderness amidst these vast spaces.

We are suddenly opened to an experience that is at once personal and transcendent. The word awe comes to mind. Her work stands at the intersection of the natural world and what it is to be human.