Hello and welcome to the 63rd 3 Art Questions With Jackson interview! This time I interviewed Shannon Darsow, a super talented artist and really nice person who I met when we were both in the Small Works at Frameworks exhibition at Frameworks Gallery in St. Paul. I admire that Shannon can work in so many different styles and it is cool that each style is really impressive. Her answers were great! Thank you for reading! (All images courtesy of the artist / Instagram: @shannondarsowart)
Jackson: I know from reading your bio that you've done many things in your life. Did you always feel artistic? Or did the idea of making the type of work you make now come later in life?
Shannon: Feeling artistic and having the drive to create is something innate in my DNA. I cannot remember a time in my life where I have not been fascinated or inspired by others and their creations, or felt the drive to constantly learn and grow my skills and create art myself. There are many members of my family who are incredibly talented in their own right.
My Dad is always, and always has been, creating and involving my sisters and I in whatever he was doing. My Mom's cousin is a well known artist in Winona, and my Grandpa on the same side of the family was very talented working with metal and wood. On my Dad's side of the family my Grandma was an incredible artist and worked with any medium and media she felt like...from the piano to paint to yarn to faberge eggs... everything was on the table for her and she made it amazing. My uncle Gene, on the same side, was the same way. He was always creating the most amazing things and thinking of others while he created...thinking of their needs and how he could make them smile. Also on the same side I have cousins who are always creating everything from crafts to incredible drawings and paintings to cards, and they are fabulous professional orchestral musicians.
I have also been so blessed to be surrounded by people who took an active interest in my own personal artistic journey and actively facilitated and took the time to teach me or guide me. I have absolutely always had an artistic feeling, always wanting to create and contribute, and coinciding with my artistic feeling while also absolutely contributing to my artistic journey at the same time is my feeling to use my creations to help others through the sales of some of my paintings and donating to different charities and sending positive vibes to the viewer's heart. My heart is in everything i do and always has been, and so are my family and all the people who have inspired me and walked with me along the way.
Jackson: You create many different types of work. What inspires you when you are drawing or painting? Do you have ideas mapped out ahead of time or do you surprise yourself?
Shannon: Yes, I use many different mediums while creating. It is definitely in my DNA to use whatever medium I am being called to use by the subject matter I am working on and how it wants to be expressed. I value and honor specializing in a career, in art, in anything you are passionate about. For me I specialize in having an insatiable appetite for learning, growth, and acquiring the skills and knowledge to execute whatever project, painting/drawing, or idea in the best way possible. In terms of art this basically just means in the way I feel the subject wants to be expressed or the feeling to be evoked, and being excited to explore and learn how to use any medium I am connecting with to achieve that.
In terms of if I have ideas mapped out ahead of time or if I surprise myself, I will have to say both. I will mostly map out a couple subjects I am currently inspired by based on that. For example, my heart has been with my dear friends Sylvanna and Lee and their very different journeys with ovarian cancer, so that was the subject of a 3 painting series in my current show at Frameworks Gallery. I am then able to use the sales from the paintings to go directly to Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. Or another series of turquoise tropical paintings inspired from my time living in New Zealand and Australia in the same show.
Jackson: If you could meet any artist living or dead, who would it be and why?
Shannon: Leonardo da Vinci would be someone I would love to meet. I am so inspired by what a curious learner he was, how he explored and incorporated science, math, and humanness into his creations, and how he mastered many forms of media in his creations. His works and discoveries are still incredibly relevant today...which is so incredible.
