SHELLEY ROTHENBURGER

Painting, Works on Paper, Photography, Collage, Drawing

City: Vancouver, British Columbia

Website: http://www.mbradica.com/shelley

Instagram: http://instagram.com/rothenburger_she

Artist Statement: “These characters are in my head and I want them outta there” – George Condo

My characters come together through a series of taking bits and scraps of material retrieved from the bin of “unsuccessfuls” and placing them here and there, this way and that, and getting a feel for the meaning implied. I start seeing a relationship between shapes and eventually they come together and ideas appear.

I don’t work from preconceived ideas. I work fast and intuitively to stay as far away from logic as possible. If rational thought interferes, the process becomes stalled. As I “map around” the composition I allow forms to grow out of themselves and expand and evolve. Its a process of redefining what I have started with as I construct the image based on what the preceding scrap piece tells me.

Part-human and part animal images morph with gaping toothy, sharp jaws, bulgy eyes and metallic bits and parts on layers of colour and texture. The images hover and appear to float in a mass of white. I want to depict personalities on top of these characters. Its about being reconstructive with deconstructed (torn apart) past works creating new inter-relationships of shape, texture, colour and line together in a single character.

It is this openness and freedom of discovery as I manipulate what I have that keeps the image fresh, real and unexpected. This is the aesthetic I strive for.

Biography: Shelley was born and raised in Thunder Bay, Ontario and now resides in Richmond, B.C. She began formal studies in art in 1989 at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay and graduated with an Honors Bachelor of Fine Art in 1995 majoring in painting. She continued her art education in 1997 upon entering Graduate School at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and completed her formal studies with a Master of Fine Art degree in painting in 2000.

She has had multiple solo, juried and group exhibitions nation wide, most noted being a juried exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto in 1996, a solo exhibition at the Nickel Museum in Calgary in 2000 and an invitational exhibition in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2014. Her work is represented in the West Vancouver District Art Collection, University of Alberta Master of Fine Art Collection and The Alberta Foundation for the Arts Collection. And, in private regional, national and international collections. Shelley’s work has also been featured in Artists Talk Magazine and Wotisart out of the United Kingdom and Art Reveal Magazine in Finland.

Her professional experience includes teaching, giving lectures and doing demonstrations and workshops. She is a court room artist and she has served on art gallery committee board of directors and as a jury member. She has co-founded and organized an annual art collective event, and exhibition design for various galleries.

Shelley has been awarded the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Graduate Scholarship Award, The Mary Louis Imrie Graduate Student Award, three Lakehead University Juried Exhibition Awards and several provincial Exhibition Assistance Grants.