Today we’d like to introduce you to Shavon Morris.
Hi Shavon, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
I am an interdisciplinary artist, merging contemporary craft, visual arts, and occasionally language. Often exploring heritage, preservation, and religious recall, my work asks us to historically consider people, and the communities they once inhabited. Additionally, I incorporate elements of social practice by involving residents and communities in debate, collaboration, and social interaction. In January 2021, I completed an Artist Residency with The Printing Museum Houston and then exhibited in “Craft as a Tool for Activism” with The San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design. I was also recognized as an Emerging Artist with the American Craft Council and was named a 2021 Suzanne Deal Booth Fellow. The fellowship was a joint program with Project Row Houses and The Center for Art & Social Engagement at UH that brought together artists, urban planners, and policymakers to engage in creative collaborations that involve the Third Ward Community.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been a smooth, uphill road. I’ve had twists and turns consistently. But now I understand that it is all a building, cumulative process. I truly believe I was chosen to create art.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Poetic in nature and cause-driven, my work manipulates and consistently rethinks historic imagery while placing an exaggerated focus on heritage, preservation, and religious recall. Through this, women organically become the center focus of the work. Varied and contrasting in texture, I use fabric and found photographs to consider ancestry and community. Ultimately, my work is informed by taking things apart, removing, replacing, cutting, pasting, sewing, and building, in order to abstractly (and subtly) discover what it means to be self and remember how self came into being.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
Mentors have been critical in my development! I have two mentors that have helped me tremendously. They have given me a reference point for what’s possible while consistently continuing to challenge my ideas.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.shavonmorris.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/speakshavon/?hl=en
- Other: https://projectrowhouses.org/our-work/art/artist-opportunities/
Image Credits
Morgan Mbadugha – Mitch & Gunner Photography
