Morning, 18x24, oil on canvas, (IN THE PRIVATE COLLECTION OF DD ALLEN)1st place oil painting, art by the bay annual member show, duxbury art association, 2023.
Curriculum vitae
Education:
Masters in Museum & Heritage Studies, University of St Andrews, 2023 - July 2024
Courses in Graphic Design and Ceramics, Maryland Institute College of Art, 2022
BA in Archaeology, minors in Visual Arts and Museums & Society, Johns Hopkins University, 2018 - 2021
Awards & Accomplishments:
2024 (currently) digital drawings of archaeological sites for Re-Imagining Nashville Project at MTSU
2024 Exhibition at Taste, St Andrews, Scotland
2023 First Place in Oil Painting, Duxbury Art Association Art by the Bay Annual Member Show
2019 Second Place in Oil Painting, Duxbury Art Association Art by the Bay Annual Member Sho
2023: Designed the cover for Below Baltimore: An Archaeology of Charm City by Adam D. Fracchia, PhD and Patricia Samford, PhD
2020-2021 Johns Hopkins Portrait Initiative Committee
2018, 2019 Johns Hopkins Center for Visual Arts Student Exhibitions
Mentions in Publications:
Biography
I am an artist currently working in Scotland. Previously, for the past year, I lived and worked in Philadelphia, PA.
I was raised in Massachusetts along the shore in a small town, and I have always been inspired by the landscapes that I grew up with in MA. Much of my art reflects my appreciation and fascination with nature, my relationship with the natural world, and the things that nature can both reveal and conceal. My art has also intrinsically woven its way into my academic studies, and I have consistently been fascinated with studying historical artistic methods, creators, objects, stories. My favorite courses at Hopkins included my classes in art and object conservation, art history, and material culture studies, as I was able to bring my creativity and observation and physical object handling skills to my work. Furthermore, learning about how scholars and experts view and work with art and objects has influenced my artistic practices, and I hope to continue this combined thread of professional and artist in my career in the future.
My art is always growing, a consequence of the constant compulsion to create that I have felt and followed since early childhood. My interests in and engagements with multiple varied media, methods, and modes of art, from painting, printmaking, photography, to fashion designing, sewing, and knitting, have brought me down many different paths. I hope to always make art, to never stop playing and experimenting with different ways of creating, to always keep learning.
I began oil painting in 2012 and it has been my obsession since I first set brush to canvas, though I began drawing extensively much earlier, at around age 3. I also work in watercolors and gouache, often mixing the two in my abstract works. I have dabbled in printmaking, creating engravings and linoleum block prints, and enjoy the storybook style they let me achieve. Not too long ago, I fell into photography in an attempt to expand my horizons, and now it is one of my favorite forms of expression. I studied painting, drawing, printmaking, and photography in high school and during my undergraduate time at Johns Hopkins, and I have also taken many art courses outside of school, including a class in London at the University College of London.
In 2019, I won second place in the oil painting category at my hometown's Art Association's summer art show, Art by the Bay, for my painting of a mango. (In a funny turn of events, first place went to the woman who had first taught me oil painting seven years earlier!). Four years later, entering the show again since then, I won first place in oil painting, and I've been spurred to continue seriously pursuing my painting in very recent months. During my time in college, I was chosen to be a part of a committee comprised of Johns Hopkins administrators, professors, and art students tasked with interviewing and selecting artists to create portraits honoring Edith Winsor and former US Representative Elijah Cummings.
In addition to fine art and photography, I also design, draft, and sew garments and other projects. Knitting is my newest love, and very quickly the wonderful wide world of fibers and yarns has captured me completely. In all my endeavors, particularly fiber arts, I most enjoy the process, following inspiration all the way from an idea to a finished product, and it never ceases to be a wonder to behold something I created, entirely by me, entirely unique.
My styles are as varied as my interests, but the themes I find myself exploring the most include fantastical scenes from dreams, memories, imaginings, representations of home, the unwavering march of time and the inescapable constancy of change, interpretations of emotions, and records of fleeting moments.
Please contact me if interested, for more information, or to inquire about anything you see here on the website at efsheehanart@gmail.com.