Shannon Edwards

This body of work is all inspired by loss; loss of ability, loss of self and the loss of loved ones.

Dance:

Dance when you are happy. Dance when you are sad, when you are angry, and horny and hollow. Dance alone. Dance with others. Just dance, and dance, and dance forever.

I danced throughout my youth. My body, mind and spirit completely whole and connected. In 2004 a car accident left me with a severe neck injury, daily migraines, and mornings when I woke in so much pain I could not move. My dancing days were over…at least for a while.

When something so much a part of us is taken away, we grieve its loss like a death. A part of me had died, and I mourned her. My body was no longer whole and complete, but something other and fragile.

It wasn’t until the pandemic I began to question my limitations. I’d watched videos of people who could barely stand, using yoga to reinvent their bodies. Slowly and carefully, I began a conversation with my own stranger of a form; a kind of “getting to know you” experiment.

Towards the end of the Pandemic, I began working with a small group of dancers, one of whom I’d danced with in youth, and together we founded Chrysalis Dance Core. We have been performing in Sonoma County as venues and opportunities re-emerge.

My dancing is gentler now. I will never be what I once was, but whatever I am, is enough.

Talking to the Dead:

This is an ongoing series examining the very real, very human desire to feel in control against all evidence to the contrary. It is inspired by the consecutive losses of my grandmother, step-father and father.  My father died of Pancreatic cancer in 2011. It was fast and unforgiving, and illuminated every fault line within my small, family.

Through this body of work I set up opportunities for viewers to both observe and participate in situations of destruction, failure and loss.  Work breaks, things fall and people are notably absent. 

I find deep satisfaction in the creation of functional art.  Because the work has an ongoing relationship with the recipient, it elevates the level of intimacy between artist, object, and viewer.  Post-Industrialized nations have created a disposable world overflowing with garbage.  As some artists begin working to repurpose, reuse and recycle, I look to the beginning.  The value an object has is not determined by its price, but by its creation.  My work is thoughtful, elegant and lyrical.  I work with light, line and a passion for material in an effort to bring an appreciation for art into everyday life.

What interests me are the relationships between color and light, between the conscious and unconscious .  My work varies depending on mood, but is unified in the motive to understand and express these relationships.