The Artist
Shawna Miller is a figurative oil painter living and working in El Jebel, CO. Her current work focuses on the bittersweet beauty and weight of motherhood. She began oil painting seven years ago and has studied in the studio of Michelle Doll in Hoboken, NJ. Shawna moved to the Roaring Fork Valley five years ago from Manhattan, NY with her husband and two young sons and she is a 2022 Aspen Art Museum Fellows participant.
"My paintings begin with my own photography. Most of my muses are friends or acquaintances, and I start by photographing them in their home environments. I do much of my compositional work in the photo-editing process in which I crop images or combine elements of different photos to define a narrative and mood. Recently, I’ve gone a step further with technology to break the composition into bright color fields that I paint onto a primed panel or linen as a fluid underpainting. I generally cover this underpainting completely with layers of oil paint, but sometimes I leave it visible as a window into the process, a graphic element, and a play between flatness and dimensionality. Some of my paintings I intentionally leave “unfinished” as an invitation to the viewer to fill in the gaps."
Exhibitions
solo
Love Letters to My Mother — The Art Base, Basalt, Colorado November 2022
two person
UPCOMING with Maria Teicher — FAO Art Hub, Oslo, Norway. October 2023
select group shows
Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass, CO — Aspen Art Museum Artist Fellows Show
March 2023R2 Gallery Carbondale CO — Valley Visual Arts Show February 2023
Aspen Chapel Gallery, Aspen CO — Les Femmes, April 2023
Basalt Library, Basalt, CO — Capsule, part of the “Taking Up Space” initiative, May 2022
BrooklynWorks, Brooklyn, NY — RPCV NYC Art Show, November 2016
Fellowships > Residencies
Château d’Orquevaux Artist Residency, Denise Diderot Grant recipient — Champagne-Ardenne, France — July 2023
2022 Aspen Art Museum Artist Fellowship, Aspen, Colorado
Education
Independent study in VR technologies via Harvestworks, NYC — Spring/Summer 2023
Private study/mentorship with painter Michelle Doll, Hoboken, NJ — 2018-2022The Rome Artist Workshops, Rome, Italy — July 2018
University of Miami, Miami, FL — M.A., International Political Economy, 2012
Septima Ars, Escuela de Cine y Television, Madrid, Spain — Certificate in Camera > Lighting for Film — 2004
University of the South, Sewanee, TN — B.A., History, 2000
Press & Speaking Engagements
Aspen Public Radio Interview
Local artist paints ‘emotional and physical manifestations of motherhood’ in new show
Artist Talk at The Art Base
In conversation with artist Teresa Booth Brown, November 15, 2022.