March Artist Talk: Shea Slemmer
Image (c) via @sheaslemmer on instagram
“Just trying to live life to its fullest, understanding, grabbing on and not being afraid of death, you know, grabbing on to the idea of the impermanence of it all and that this is going to be a fun journey, dammit.”
Maggie Hayes Thank you so much for joining us on our little monthly artists talk and trying to do, which is basically just an excuse for me to talk to people that I like about what they're what they're doing with their work and and ask questions that are more more formal than I would usually ask if I was just sitting around with a buddy.
Shea Slemmer Oh, it's so good to see your face.
MH You too babe! So you're in Pennsylvania right now?
SS Yep.
MH This is the new home base.
SS Yeah, I'm in south central Pennsylvania right now. Before this, I spent two years in Marfa, as you know, and covid turned into a situation of not only was I kind of isolated in the desert already, but covid isolation on top of it turned into just a little too much for me. And I got to a point, where like if I don't have some human interaction soon, it's going to be a problem.
MH Right. Because Marfa, though, I know it's a pretty tight knit artist community, it's still super small.
SS Yeah, it's small. And without the tourism coming through, you know, it's it's pretty quiet most of the time, which is lovely, you know, but I was living alone out there and then I broke my ankle. And so I was trying to handle crutches by myself. I wanted some family. So my dad's side of the family is all from this area, south central Pennsylvania. And so I decided to come on out here where I have lots of cousins to play with.
MH Amazing and young cousins. Right. I feel like I've seen some some children in pics.
SS My cousins have kids and their kids have kids.
MH Oh, wow. Amazing. Yeah. Yeah. A big crew out there.
SS Exactly.
MH Well, I'll give a little background because I know that a lot of people that would be following me also would know you from Savannah. But just for anyone that is not familiar with Shea's work, she's a wonderful painter. We met in Savannah, but I felt like New York kind of gave us an opportunity to get closer outside of the context of Savannah,
SS I was just having memories of the two of us with Lyouba sitting outside of a cafe and just talking for hours. So lovely. That New York time was really special.
MH I so agree. And with both of you, it was really just like cherished, serendipitous time that we were all there together and we kind of had this little, I don't know, like it was definitely an incubation year for me, had a lot of growth happening that year and a lot of realization. And, yeah, just to be there with you both. And then we've all gone back to do different other things. So it really was just this one year capsule that we had to hang. So that was super nice. But. Right. So we all were living in New York for a year three years ago now.
SS Oh, gosh! Maybe. Time flies.
MH Two and a half years. I think something of that nature. About two and a half years ago when we were sort of moving on from there. I think so. From New York, you moved to Marfa and spent two years there and now you're in South Central P.A. So can you tell us a little bit about your journey as a painter?
“I had some time to really think about how I am getting these paintings down and what that means exactly, because they’ve sort of become my diary. They’ve just been little recordings of where I’ve been and how I felt. And I often tell people I’m not painting what I see, I’m painting how I felt about what I saw. ”
images above via instagram: @sheaslemmer
SS Sure. So I work in direct response to my environment, and I got pretty lucky during this. I mean, covid has kind of been an incubation period for a lot of artists, I think, which is nice to have time to reflect. I have gotten some works done, but they've been on the smaller side. I haven't been doing large scale works because I just don't have any real deadlines. I've been using a lot of time to think and read and write, which is always so great. And then I got a residency this past month in February with the Ellis Beauregard Foundation in Maine. And I had spent three weeks out on an island 10 miles off the coast of Maine this past summer in July and fell in love and painted about it and just had all this great alone time. And then going back in winter sounded like the most magical opportunity. And it was. I got to see all the same places covered in snow on a coastline that's made of granite. And it was just incredible. Lots of hiking, lots of nature, lots of alone time. And so although the move from the beautiful high plains desert area, which has inspired me so, to more of a rural farmland, a lot of Mennonite influence here in South central P.A., an old part of the country, you know, Gettysburg is right next door. And I'm literally right on the Mason-Dixon line. I can practically throw a shoe at it, which is an interesting part of my history growing up in the South and having family from here. And so really just trying to digest all of that and see where I fit. I may have been a little apprehensive at first because we differ in so many different ways. I mean, I'm pretty much on opposite ends of the spectrum, and there's a lot more of them than me. So family gatherings are something I had to kind of take a deep breath and realize just you know, this is a part of your history and it's important too. I'm not sure exactly how that's going to seep into my work. I think I'm still riding the high from Maine. You know, I for the first time was able to paint chromatically because that's what it was. It was black and white. So I was trying to capture that. But still, there's this ethereal thing that happens with the different lighting there. Just the sky blending into the ocean to where sometimes there's no delineation at all, the reflections of all the whites happening with all that gray and the intermediary colors I really loved. And so I'm still kind of thinking about that a lot. And while I was there, you know. I had some time to really think about how I am getting these paintings down and what that means exactly, because they've sort of become my diary. They've just been little recordings of where I've been and how I felt. And I often tell people I'm not painting what I see, I'm painting how I felt about what I saw. And so when I take a lot of photographs, those photographs aren't what I look at when I paint. And so I'm just trying to remember how that made me feel. And people come into that, all the things about the surrounding, what happened that day, what museum I went to. Sometimes, you know, all those influences come into the paintings that happen. And so sometimes they happen relatively quickly, as if a sketch and sometimes the different paintings from different areas kind of melt into each other. So I don't know. It's been an interesting journey. And my art is kind of just following along with, you know, it's just naturally kind of going with me. I'm not forcing anything. And luckily, I have had some time to really let that be. Let that sit, let that be what it's going to be. I started a new thing, actually. I've done self hypnosis recently. I'm starting to use binaural beats when I paint in different brainwave frequencies, listening to different brainwave frequencies with headphones on while I paint and while I create what I think and what I write. And I found it to be super soothing. I found it to be something that is branching out into more creative aspects in my environment, for instance, the spatial relationship of how my paintings fit into different areas. You know, and I have this project house right now that was here for generations, built in the 1800's. And so it's got a lot of different vignettes already happening with it. It was a garden center with green houses, so there's outdoor space. And so I've been kind of putting my art in the space and interacting with it, with all the things that were left behind and found here. Well, you know, I always try to reuse everything that's around me anyway. And so now I'm bringing in all those recycled natural materials into the artwork and doing some experimental things, which we shall see. I don't have any end results at the moment. Yeah, we'll just have to see where that goes.
MH I love the sound of just like experimentation and using this past year to let let things flow, whether that's like experimenting with how sound is working with that or obviously different landscapes. You definitely single handedly inspired my own trip to Maine last year, that summer, because these I mean, between the paintings that you were making and the vistas and photographs of that area was just so otherworldly. Obviously I love Savannah, but being in the middle of July in Savannah, and it was like seeing even just the image of those cliffs in Maine, I was like, "oh, wow, that feels good." So it was like instantly soothing. And I'm so glad that you got to see it also then again in February with the difference of climate and light, because I feel like the light does change so much throughout the year. Like to observe the January, February light in Savannah, for example, so incredibly different than during the summer, the rest of the year. So I've always really enjoyed like certain early year events in Savannah because it's this light, like this winter light that is so beautiful.
SS I bet the marsh is starting to turn green a little. You know that chartreuse color? Ah, I love that! I have to get down there.
MH Yeah. You're always welcome here. So I was thinking about like with art, and I know that you also write a lot and you have a beautiful practice with writing and love your poetry that has sometimes accompanied your work. How do you feel painting and language go together?
SS Yeah, they're exactly hand in hand, they're exactly hand in hand, and personally, I've always considered myself more of a visual language type of person using all of the senses in order to communicate with someone. And so the painting kind of bridges a gap. It's a form of language that it's kind of multidimensional, honestly. And I think that there are ways to, with your art, provide escape routes from maybe the normal left or right path and maybe start walking down the middle of that road. And I've always enjoyed reading a lot of your work as well, because it seems like for the last couple of years you've been on a bit of a spiritual journey yourself, and it just keeps compounding and compounding to where you're seeking truth. You know, you're seeking these ideas and truths. And I see it come out in your work. And I hope that it's coming out in mine as well, as providing just kind of little gateways or kind of, hey, maybe this door speaks to you and might take you down a path that's a little different. How can I help with that? Maybe we could meet there and have coffee.
image via instagram: @sheaslemmer
MH Yes! I always think of it as even our most slight creative acts in a broad sense, like everything that we're doing creatively is this expanding force in the universe. And we really have a lot of power in how we direct our energy and our attention and our expression. And so I feel like when we're called to to share those expressions, it really is like a door or gateway for others, hopefully, to be like, hey, there's a little more over here. There's a little more world just right this way. It's another world to view whether it's in the form of written language or painting.
SS Yeah, exactly. And using all the tools available to you. I mean, why not? Yeah, why not do all of the different things that, in the end, I feel like they all melt into one. You know, if you were to take everything you did over the past five, 10 years and put them all in the same room, you would definitely see a spider web. You would see the threads that connect that you couldn't see 10 years ago. You couldn't tell how it was going to connect. But now, later, with all of the different things you explore, they do all come together. And that's part of the fun of it, you know,
MH which I will say for all of you know, there's many things to be said about social media. But as far as your social media, for example, I love following you because that spider web is so cohesive to understand really this journey through life. But it's through all these different forms of your writing and your captions and like the images of your travels and then the paintings that express the feelings of those travels... I feel like there's just a lot of pluses and minuses to social media. And I feel like your feed being in my world is definitely one of the pluses because it's just so rich. So indicative of exactly that, this kind of melting together of all these different forms of expression, whether it's a vignette that's just a snapshot of a palette moment or a magical vista where you're clearly up at 5:00 in the morning seeing the sunrise over some mountain somewhere. It's pretty amazing.
SS You know, there's this connection that happens with the macro and micro, you know, and. I guess trying to find a connection there that makes sense has always been one of the challenges, you know, because I see that pebble in the pond the same as I see that mountain in the sky sometimes. I mean, I see the same light reflections and the same colors and the same composition. You know..
MH That's totally what I feel like my journey in the psyche is about, is really connecting the big psyche, which is like our collective ways of thinking about things with the intimacy of our little, you know, the little moments just for us as individuals. So that's definitely very relatable in that.
SS When you say the bigger part of the psyche, do you mean humans in general?
MH Yeah.
SS Oh, that's great!
MH So, this kind of connective tissue where it's like, hey, what have we agreed on as a society, as a culture? What have we agreed on even expanding that into a global structure? And how is that reflected in our choices that we make about our day to day lives and trying to thread that together in a way that's hopefully healing, because we need it.
SS No kidding.
MH Yeah, in a sense that I'm like, OK, if I can recognize these patterns that replicate in all these different ways, then we might be able to keep applying some creative energy into making it a little more desirable.
SS I love that, that's such a wonderful thought.
MH And to try to then convey that through paintings or otherwise... I was kind of talking to my mom and I was like, it's really hard for me to make one painting, like I feel like a painting is always in conversation with the room, it's always in conversation with everything else in the environment that it's in. And so it's hard for me to really just make one painting. I like to make a group of paintings that are all in communication with each other because I feel... Well, maybe I'm just a little bit verbose, so I don't feel like I can say it all in one painting. I have to have five paintings to say the thing I want to say,
SS …and sometimes 20. And sometimes two! I think it's just the release and letting it be what it needs to be to say the thing it needs to say. And getting to that point takes a lot of introspection and self trust. You know, that you know in yourself that you're going to say what you need to say and as little or as much as it needs to be, you know.
MH So there's no planned exhibitions on the horizon? It's just unfolding day to day, just whatever is coming to you?
SS Yeah. I've kind of made this project here in Pennsylvania, my art project.
MH The house?
SS The house itself and the outside area, has five greenhouses attached to a cinder block building. Oh, wow. And so I'm these are becoming little. I don't even know... Biodomes?
MH Sounds like you're a good friend to have if there's an apocalypse then, with five greenhouses!
SS Oh, we just survived an apocalypse! I can't talk about it otherwise. (laughs) But yeah. So I've got I've got this area that I'm able to bring in the different parts of the world, the natural environments that have inspired me to my studio sort of through these magic doorways. It's in the early phases, but I have the beginnings of what my project will be that it's incorporating natural elements like plants, rocks, lighting, transformation of space and all the different forms of art that come along with it. And in my project in Marfa, I reused all of the material that was left behind, all of the extra building materials and made them into art on the property. And I plan to do the same thing here. But I was left with a lot of things. Quite a few things were left behind just because it had been boarded up for five years and the generations that had owned it, the things kind of just piled up over time. And so this, I've turned into my art project at the moment. And yeah, I really haven't been painting, I painted, of course, every day in Maine. And then when I got back here at the beginning of March, I have just been mainly outside, moving things around, shoveling dirt, cleaning, meditating, and that's been it. I haven't made any paintings in a couple of weeks, you know, not even touched a brush. And those moments are so important.
MH That's very unusual for you!
SS I know! I like a nine to five grind because it makes me feel good, you know, gives me this feeling of accomplishment every day. But also having time to look around and feel out where you are and not have the pressure of that is healthy too. So maybe one day I'll be able to find some balance in my life. I'm searching for it.
MH Yeah, I feel like I'm kind of like a faucet, like I'm either on or I'm off. And it's not that I'm "off" in the sense that I'm not being creative, but as far as my actual creative output, it's very much kind of like, I don't know, I have to fill up that reservoir and then it's just like I can make as much as I want in a short matter of time usually. But it's really wild to kind of be like, all right, I need to refill the tanks, draw in a bit of inspiration, you know, whether it's being outside or doing things that are more just for my body and not actually an output of creative energy. But that's very interesting. That's such an exciting concept. I'm thinking of like having visited the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and the rooms, like the greenhouse rooms where you get transported into the desert in the middle of the winter in Brooklyn.
SS It's a fun thought, isn't it?
MH Yeah! So I am curious to hear a little bit more about your main residency, because this recent time there, I got little snippets from here online. But as far as interacting with the environment, I felt like I saw a larger some larger works?
image via instagram: @sheaslemmer
SS Yep, I was thinking that I would do only one size while I was there, and sometimes and it's not really to limit myself, it's just to create a starting point. So because I had already been to Maine and painted there, I was working with like this three foot by three foot size that really was transportable, for one, and also was easy to work with and manipulate in a smaller space. But when I got there, the Ellis Beauregard Foundation is and Donna McNeil, the director, I mean, just lovely humans. And I got this huge. Classroom in an old school building right in Rockland, Maine, right there, walking distance to the water. So I had all the space and then once I started hiking and going on these larger walks, I decided to go big because it's big and I had room. So I just went down to our supply store and started buying canvasses, you know, and that that was good. That was really helpful. I miss painting large. It turns out I've always enjoyed it so much. You can just it's such a physical activity. In fact, this canvas I worked on the floor at first and then when I had to get it on the wall, it took me all day and I literally had to do stretching exercises and breathing because whew, it was a lot of work and I missed that, I missed getting into it, you know, and physically interacting with the canvas. So, you know, it's always interesting if you want to lead a little bit of a nomadic life, but also paint large canvases, I haven't quite figured that out, how that's going to work for me, you know, part of me thinks the best thing to do is have studios in certain places that are brick and mortar that can stay there and you can store things and also be workspaces, but also I don't like the upkeep of that. So I like to be free to go where I want and do what I want when I want to go do it. And so I'm not sure exactly how that will work. But I have to say that is one of the lovely things about that residency, is I got to stretch those muscles, if you will, you know, flex them and just get in there again.
MH So it does really sound like to me, though, with a lot of your work, and I know you have done work with like renovating houses, and doing things that are so physical. How do you feel your body, your relationship to using your body and like doing physical work translates as an art expression in general?
SS Well, physical work, finding joy in labor, I've always thought keeps you young. I think that it's super important to also stay connected with the earth. You dig in the ground, you know, you want to feel accomplished? Grow something from a seed. It feels amazing, you know? I always said if I ever get stuck, you know, like writer's block or something. All I have to do is go spend a day gardening and I'm suddenly unstuck, you know, and yeah, it just for some reason that energy from the earth that we're all a part of, it's so important to keep touching it and stay in touch with that. I think personally that it's healing and good.
MH I love that. I feel like such an aquatic being that it's usually going swimming for me to get back into the flow of my, you know, my mind, psyche, body, orientation. Getting back in alignment is always getting in the water somewhere. And it's funny, like trying to pay attention to, like, plants that I'm supposed to be keeping alive is really an interesting task.
SS I'm an earth sign and you're not.
MH It is true. It is true. But I just think that's so interesting because as much as I love the Earth, I always do sort of connect to it with with this sort of fascination of like, "Huh, how peculiar.."
SS The water provides its own sense of grounding as well, if you are okay with the ebb and flow of things, you know. For me, that's a little bit scary. Honestly, I like more on the black and white side of things, you know, and that's my comfort zone.
MH Yeah. Something solid.
SS Exactly.
MH I love that. I feel like you do exude that Capricorn earth energy for sure. And just like being a solid person, you really are who you say you are, if that makes sense, that feels really good to be around someone that is like that. it's so nice. Like, I have so many friends that are very much like that, like you. What you see is what you get. They are who they say they are. They're going to do what they say they're going to do. And that is like medicine for me. It's so magical to be around people that are that way.
SS I agree.
MH Even just for something like this, I'm like as soon as you said yes to doing the talk, I'm like "And Shea will actually be there." There's just this dependableness that's really beautiful and magical to me as someone that is kind of a floater, used to going with the stream, to also be able to have some rocks in my life. I'm like, oh my God, a rock!
SS I'll be your touch tree!
MH Yes! Thank you. So I'm trying to think... I haven't talked to you in so long. So there's part of me that wants to be like, who you hanging out with these days? But I can save that for a private conversation. Yes. So we've kind of touched on, like, your transition from here to there, being more connected with family here and this amazing house project. And how are you feeling? Like what's keeping you, what keeps you sort of positive with the state of the world in this kind of wild confusion? Is it going back to the Earth and like being with the Earth or maybe some other some other waves of positivity that come through for you?
SS I think about that a lot, and I think it's because I have so much time to think partially, but, gosh, I'm trying to, every day, see the positive side of things rather than head down the negative hole that is provided to me by media. And so I don't ignore media in general, but I do try to think about it from a positive spin always. And yeah, I guess just that spring is here is saving me. It's that spring and flowers are popping up everywhere and the birds are singing. So I can just go outside, you know, I can shut it off and I can just go outside and enjoy those sounds and be in nature at a time where there's sunshine, you know, these warm rains are coming. It's a little bit colder here than in Savannah, but it's already getting muggy, you know, and I miss that a little bit, you know, and a couple of years of dry, dry, dry. And that was really nice for what it was. But it's also nice to be back where there's all this moisture again.
MH Oh, my gosh, that's so interesting. Yeah, again, I just feel like your body relationship to the world is so in touch with your environment being really important to like what you're experiencing, how you're feeling. And I just think that's so much of what an artist is, is really looking at how you're perceiving even more so than how you are putting out work. It's like the ways in which we perceive the sensitivity to which we perceive other people, our surroundings, like our own body sensations. All of this, like so many people, are an artist without even knowing it because they're just alive to their senses.
SS Mm hmm. And that's beautiful. But it's also annoying at times.
MH Being sensitive is not always, you know, the most easy... Being super sensitive to all that is not the easiest route, but it is very rich. I keep going back to that, like kind of this that internal abundance that is being just really alive and really connected. And it hurts. (laughs)
SS Yeah, shedding your armor and being open makes you super vulnerable. And it's so hard. You know, there's so many times where, like, even right now talking about, like, am I going to cry. Yeah, I know, but just being sensitive to when someone else is going through that as well. And and I think there's obviously it's very brave of you to open up like that and share. And it's just very giving and generous to the world to open yourself up and allow yourself to be like, "Here I'm this flower, world! Take me." You know, the world is hard and it doesn't necessarily take care of where it steps. And so it's very scary at times, you know? Yeah. So I'm so glad we have each other and we can talk about it.
MH Totally! So it's hard to talk to people about that richness of letting your guard down or like letting some of your guard down.
SS Right. Right.
MH That like that continuous unfolding of like shedding armor, shedding armor, which for me, a lot of times I think of it as like, shedding coping mechanisms. Like these ways that we've learned how to protect ourselves, that don't let us always be in the present moment because we're so, you know, we're so used to protecting ourselves that it's like, how can I be present if I'm also like (raises fists). It's a hard balance, so to let art be part of that's. Like... I don't wanna say art is a safe space to just be yourself and express yourself, because obviously you open yourself to critique from doing creative things sometimes, but I feel like it's very different to try to express through art than just like walking up to your partner and being like "this is how I feel." Like art kind of gives you this outlet that we can really be our most vulnerable, authentic selves and put on a canvas and be like, "Here I am", I'm like I don't want to say it's it's certainly not a copout, but it's it's a nice outlet. When the world does get overwhelming or I don't feel like I know who to talk to about something, I do have my art practice or my meditation or these different practices that kind of let me have a release valve that can bring me back to sort of a homeostasis of sorts.
SS Absolutely.
MH Yeah, would you say the same?
SS Oh, yeah, I would. You know, I'm grabbing every one of your words right now. I don't know if we knew each other in another life or something, but I always felt a connection to you because of the way we practice every day, it may not be painting, but we're still kind of walking parallel lines, if you will, a little bit. Just trying to live life to its fullest, understanding, grabbing on and not being afraid of death, you know, grabbing on to the ideas of the impermanence of it all and that this is going to be a fun journey, dammit.
MH Yes dammit! This is going to be a fun journey dammit.
SS It starts now!
image via instagram: @sheaslemmer
MH I love it. Yes. I feel so connected to you. And I don't know how long we've been talking, but I feel like if there's anything else that we'd like to sort of share anything else about, like what you're up to or. Oh, people, of course, anyone that is watching you can follow Shea. It's @sheaslemmer you can hop on, and it's really a wonderful journey to hang out with her on social media life because it's her poetic interpretation of the world and it's really magical. And yeah, hopefully we get some exhibitions and some fun things back online because I want to see these big paintings.
SS Yes. Yes I will, I will tip you in on it. But when I get a few more things rolling. Thanks for including me, Maggie, it's so good to see you.
MH Such an honor to have you. And I know that, you know, these talks are just one way to keep the keep the energy flowing as we've kind of all been semi- isolated. I've always loved to just kind of get in and talk to people and get in that, just that little bit deeper than the casual conversation. So I'm super appreciative that you were down. And yeah, we got to have our little little side talk soon. All right. Love you Shea! Thank you so much!
MH Bye Maggie. Love you, too.
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