Sophisticated Primitive

Shannon Weber

I started my career in a very remote part of Oregon, along a river watching birds construct a nest. That led me to becoming a working Studio Artist and Instructor, which I have been for the past 37 years. Of those 37 years, I have been playing with wax for 21 years.

My work is known for its eccentric approaches both in design and the materials I choose to work with. My process and approach are sophisticated primitive, my studio, a lab of sorts. I usually work more in the outside environment, where some crazy ideas seem to brew. I set things on fire, pound things with rocks, rip and tear things apart to either weave or stitch them back together, paint, and mix unlikely items together. There are always a couple of subjects going at the same time, which allows me to move around and ingest the dialog of the materials at hand.

At least 85 percent of the materials in my sculptures and objects are designed from items I collect, repurpose, or harvest from various locations. Items in nature, the ocean, and found objects are everywhere.

Whisper Box Series Woven reclaimed construction wire off job site, skinned with layers of paper and wax medium, oil, found objects 11 x 8 x 5 in

Coastal Meditation Layers of burned vintage papers, skinned layers of encaustic, various collected drilled objects off my beach, woven object of found objects 16 x 16 x 8 in

I currently make my own wax from local hives that I get from farmers, then mix in Damar, as it allows me to adjust the outcome of the hardness of the wax, and I like the extra debris from the wild wax. While I do strain junk out from time to time, I like the efect of the raw product.

Wax crossed my path in 2000. It was just by chance when I walked into a gallery to view an exhibit of paintings. The paintings were of wax, and they were amazing.

In my own work at this time, I was exhibiting in fine art & fine craft shows, invitational exhibits, and museums. I had not seen anyone use wax. I spent the next hour and a half talking with the gallery owner about the artist and his process. Then I asked the big question. I asked the gallery owner, "Have you ever seen wax used in 3D?" He was quick to say no, and then he questioned how that might be possible.

Rock the Boat Woven boat form, skinned with layers of burned vintage Korean romance novel pages with encaustic, sea kelp, hand stitched details, stitched and drilled collected beach stones 9 x 22 x 10 in

Amulet Handwoven of reclaimed construction wire off a job site, skinned with layers of burned paper and encaustic medium, bound with raw hemp cording, found objects and Hag stone collected off my beach 18 x 8 x 6 in

A Quest.

I chased down where I could get wax, I ordered five 333 ml medium blocks from R&F, hair brushes, and a heating element. I already owned a torch. I did a fair amount of reading on the subject, and then it was time to jump in.

Let Us Begin. I had some trial and error moments, but used them as learning opportunities and marched ahead using panels and hand structured objects. I was quite comfortable layering a deep depth of wax on both of these types of substrates.

I was then on to scraping, carving back, and embedding objects. Finishes could include attaching various materials using methods like basic stitching, or using a fish-netmending technique. Rocks, metal, and various items from nature were employed as surface elements. Using wax allowed my surfaces to be marked up and dirty, which I find inspiring and exciting.

Caught Handwoven cage, entrapped encaustic embedded object with bones and woven mouth, thread with collected and drilled beach stones 15 x 8 x 6 in

I do not direct the outcomes of my designs, and while a fair amount of my work leans towards "artifact" ambiance, it is truly the collected items that run the dialog of how things are going to go. To be honest, there really isn't enough words to write about all of my methods.

Every item is changed in one form or another. Some people may find my processes obscure. I am curious, sometimes clever. In general, I keep in mind that humans are the makers of things, and we all carry this DNA. It's original and it's authentic.

The Gathering Mixed materials woven and stitch form, filled with mixed media woven and stitched objects of paper and encaustic embedded with various found objects of bone, teeth, beach glass 20 x 7 x 6 in

The Gathering Details

All Aboard Woven and stitched boat frame, skinned with layers of paper and wax medium, oil stick, filled with three-mixed media woven objects of collected materials and wax 28 x 14 x 12 in

Work in process details of a boat bottom and side

About the Author

Shannon Weber is a working studio artist and educator working in 3D-fiber sculpture. Her attraction to working with fiber is in the options it presents in its ability to shape-shift when using a variety of reclaimed materials and found objects. By applying ancient techniques and transitioning to contemporary designs, she achieves her desired efects by using a mixture of repetitive layers, weaving, stitching, cold connections, painting, and encaustic. These multiple applications make it very easy to blend metal, wire, coastal debris, rubber, and organic materials of all kinds. Each layer of material mixed with diferent techniques begins to build structure that gives the objects and vessels their form and opens doors for detailed surface design embellishments.

Shannon's works have received numerous awards and are held both in public and private collections, along with being seen and featured in 38 publications worldwide. You can view Shannon’s work at www.shannonweber.com

You can view Shannon’s work at www.shannonweber.com