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This is a self-portrait describing my life at 36 years. A cloud hand, in a peace sign, holds up a shell. Out of the shell comes bubbles, symbolically describing different pain from my past that I have turned to strength. It is a signpost of going into matronhood, or motherhood, from maidenhood. The sun is rising to this next journey, as much as it is setting on the old phase. A needle comes out of the ocean, pierces the cloud and dances off into expanse of sky. A winding path leads to the shore, where orange waters lap onto the beach as pure sacral chakra energy itself, unseen.

Shelley's paintings dance with unabashed honesty of the medicines and challenges of the human life cycle. Existential and contemplative, her work explores the net between psychology and spirituality. She discovers what each painting wants to say, translates it and offers her paintings as meditations on existence. She uses shamanic journeying and energetic healing to pull the physical feelings inside of her out and onto the canvas. Her process starts within her heart and mind, most often based on experiences of her own personal growth and self-reflection. Emotions turn into landscapes, cognitive processes turn into people and deities. Her path is a seeker of truth and she is highly interested in the interconnectedness of energy and the...