Shannon Maisel gallery four

Shannon Maisel received her B.A. in Art and Anthropology from Centre College and her M.F.A. in painting from Kendall College of Art and Design. Her work is collected and shown both nationally and internationally. Shannon lives in Allendale, MI with her husband Sebastian and their two children Sophia and Fiona.Shannon founded the art program at Thuringea International School, Germany where she taught KG 8th grade for two years. During this time, she spent evenings giving private art lessons to both children and adults. She has also worked as a substitute art teacher in Saudi Arabia and has spent multiple summers teaching art to children through the Kids College Program in Somerset, KY. As a returned Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras, community involvement is important to Shannon. She volunteers with the Girl Scouts of America and the Allendale Quilt Guild.

About Shannon's Work

My work focuses primarily on concepts of identity. The influences culture, economics, gender, history, language, place, politics, religion, race, etc.… have in creating the individual and the other. This fascination has been an undercurrent of mine since childhood. As an artist in my late teens and early 20’s I was interested in malleability of identity. The metamorphous from youth to adult in human nature and its relationship to identity continue to ground the concepts behind my work. In my late 20’s my focus shifted from transitioning identity to gender and identity. By concentrating on gender, I was able to incorporate traditional elements of women’s work into my pieces. Now in my 30’s, my interests in identity continue, however now culture and identity become the driving force in my art. Within my work, specific historic signifiers for strength, power and hope are used in conjunction with patterns, flowers, positioning the figures, and quilt blocks to create a visual dialogue about identity. My work reminds the viewer that we are all the “other.”

Image by Studio K2 photography