Rising Stars: Meet Shawn Etheridge of North Carolina

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shawn Etheridge.

Hi Shawn, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’ve been creating since I was a child. Started out drawing comic strip characters, funny cars and space ships. I had a love for bright, vibrant colors. In college I did more sculpture, and pottery than painting. Started focusing on painting more after college. Was a family man, retail manager and part-time artist for close to 30 years. Now I lead a specialty-arts/ embellishing department for a large-scale printing company, along with being a part-time exhibiting artist.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I sometimes would have trouble finding time to create. Also, because of my demanding schedule, I rarely was physically at any of the shows/exhibitions my work was in. In the beginning went about 5 or 6 years show work but very few had seen me outside of drop-off/pick-up.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a painter that sometimes veers off into mixed media. I work in portraiture, figurative, collage and mixed media. I’m know for my HBCU Historic Heroes Series, an ongoing body of work that celebrates the country HBCUs. Each painting highlights an alumnus or former administrator, representing a facet of the school’s history, and illustrating the excellence that both the school and the person featured epitomizes. With 19 institutions represented so far, my next segment will focus on historical buildings and landmarks. I’d say I’m most proud of my series and having 2 paintings in a private collection in Lisbon, Portugal. I tend to jump around a bit when it comes to my painting subjects. I’m constantly mixing ideas, materials and styles. Searching for that thing in the work that excites me and takes over my thoughts. Because of this, my overall body of work can appear disjointed, at least to me anyway.

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I work to be as authentic as possible. I’m weighted down by the day to day insanity in the world. My soul seeks more beauty so I create my versions of it. Some people resonate with this.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: ShawnEtheridgeArt ; nc_hbcu_series
• Facebook: ShawnEtheridgeArt ; NorthCarolinaHBCUproject