dana shearin
Dana Shearin
Dana Shearin spent her childhood: drawing, dancing, swimming, crabbing, fishing, swinging in hammocks, and canoeing, on the barrier Islands, off the coast of North Carolina. She holds a BFA from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. She has taught workshops and classes at National Louis University, Western Illinois University, North Central Michigan College, and The Evanston Art Center. Shearin has been a member of the Midwest Clay Guild for 15 years, and has twice served as its president. She currently makes art in Evanston, Illinois, where she lives with her husband and their dog.
Artist Statement - Visual language has the ability to awaken senses, engage empathy, and motivate compassion. In my most recent figurative work I am exploring the convergence between fragility, destruction, and strength through resilience. My work has often played with themes of archeology, antiquity, and remnants. Through these themes I hope to not only place my work into the broader context of art history but to develop pieces that are both more easily understood and approachable. I have struggled as we all do at some point in time with the failures of the body. I am fascinated by the aspects of the mind that allow one to overcome or cope with physical conditions. Making work helps fuel my own resilience and hope that it can become capable of evoking resilience in others.