Artist Bio
With over 30 years of experience in art making, Shawn Farley derives inspiration from the surrealist and avant-garde movements and particularly the women artists of those periods – Tanning, Carrington, Varo, Oppenheim, Donas, and Popova. Their work speaks to the feminine psyche, be it nurturing or not. Farley utilizes foundry molds, found objects, and paint to create abstract, figurative symbols and totems. Many of them come together through automatic placement originally, but with constant editing, and are completed with a specific theme or vision in mind. Themes spring from dreams, anxiety, and what she sees as the weight of humanity in this world. Just as with symbols created in the past, her work elicits a feeling, tells a story, or at the very least begins one. Farley lives and works in Florence, MA