What is the similarity between capturing and being captured?
"I notice something new and beautiful in the world around us
everyday. Usually the beautiful is something that is around me, just
waiting to be noticed. Whether it is an elbow, shadows, orchids, a
peach, a sunset, or even a ceramic coffee cup, these things motivate
me to study and discover them. Ordinary objects and images aren’t
actually ordinary: their qualities of line, texture, light, color,
transparency and human characteristics entrap me. I am constantly
capturing and captured by the images around me. They hold me close
and don’t let me go for days, for weeks , for months sometimes,
creating a furry of painting that is so specific and yet so variable. The
same way that a portrait of a person can be endlessly different, a
flower or a sunset has character that changes so much according to
the light that falls on it, or depending on the mood of the colors
surrounding it. Brighten up a brown skin tone with a backdrop of lime
green, or sink a lily in black velvet as you paint it, and watch its
character change and grow. I insist that I capture great images in
paint, but it could equally be said that images capture me to become
more
than
they
might
be
in
their
quiet
worlds."
Shawn Weed was born in the small town of Anderson, Indiana while
his immediate family moved many times during his childhood. They
finally stopped in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where they currently
reside. College took Shawn to San Francisco where he attended the
controversial San Francisco Art Institute for two years. He then moved
to Scotland where he attended the Glasgow School of Art and received
his Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts. Shawn Weed currently paints in his
quiet studio in Brooklyn, across the bridge from New York City. He has
had shows in Indianapolis Indiana, Albuquerque New Mexico, San
Francisco and San Diego California, and Glasgow and Edinburgh
Scotland.