The Personality of Form

Shawn’s People is an ongoing series of original mixed media paintings built around a shared vocabulary of simplified human forms. Each figure begins with familiar shapes and proportions, yet through changes in color, pattern, arrangement, and pose, an entirely different personality emerges.

I am fascinated by how much a figure can communicate through so little. A subtle shift in position, a different combination of colors, or the placement of a single shape can transform the character and suggest a new attitude, emotion, or story. Working primarily with layered collage and paint on canvas, I explore these possibilities through repetition and variation. Although these figures share the same visual foundation, no two seem to have quite the same thing to say.