Spotlight Arts: Dark Art

Artist Statement

Shannon Elizabeth Gardner is a graduate from the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point with a Bachelors in Studio Art and a Minor in Art History. As an artist she appreciates the spontaneous process of nature and strives to explore Earth’s unearthed beauty and imitate it’s natural imperfections. Shannon’s use of watercolor and India Ink are unforced and create beauty within flaws while crafting an earthy grunge appearance.

Shannon’s interest in the macabre began while studying nature and the paranormal. The ethereal mood of her work reaches the extreme and addresses the taboo. The use of watercolor, line, and dot work assists the viewer to observe the Asian aesthetic Wabi Sabi: the appreciation of imperfections. Her use of dots creates the impression of a technical drawing by creating an illusion of value, texture, and depth. This technique imitates the changes in life through time.

The pieces created in 2020 were created during an artist residency in Lapua, Finland. The deep forests and dark landscape of the Scandinavian Winter inspired the ethereal mood of exploring the aesthetic within imperfections and the unearthed beauty of linework, dot work, and watercolor. These techniques imitate the look of nature, implying crisp texture and impression of depth; the best way to convey the look and feel of the natural world.

The collection of life drawings are some of Shannon’s most favored pieces as they represent the beauty in minimalism as well as exploring the artist’s admiration of nature and imperfections.

The botanical pieces focus on small objects rather than wide open space. The negative space creates an open abstract atmosphere as the depth of the subject matter is enhanced.

With her admiration of nature and death the work strives to explore the aesthetic within imperfections and unearthed beauty of line work and stippling. These techniques imply and imitate natural imperfections.