Maureen Shaughnessy – Water :: Earth :: Wind

03.08.201609.20.2022

Threads of Continuity

Every time I begin working on a new series, I have mixed feelings. Being held by what I’ve already started mixed with being impelled by what I want to do next. Melancholy mixed with excitement. Curiosity mixed with worry. Delight mixed with feeling vulnerable. Do you ever feel that way when you start something new?

I haven’t yet exhausted my last series (The Mother Tree work) but I’m ready to keep growing and moving forward. I think to myself “I’ll go back to the Mother Tree or the Salmon Forest or the Ecology of the Unconscious.” Will I? Probably not — right now I’m exploring a new(ish) medium for me. My current mixed media pieces have a new look — still mine, but I think better. I love experimenting with materials, exploring different ways of putting marks on a surface, and new ways to express what wants to come out of me.

So, one of the questions I ask myself as I embark on a new series is, how does this have anything to do with the work I recently completed? Where is the thread of continuity between those other series and this one? I’ve been playing with printmaking for several years (in the big picture, that’s not long at all) and have barely started incorporating collagraphs, monoprints and relief printing into my mixed media paintings. Here are a couple of pieces that have some of my prints as part of the composition:

In The Tongass Forest, the Trees are Made of Salmon

Right now, I’m playing with a small tabletop press (wishing it were alot larger.) I’m trying out techniques that are new to me, but fit my style and objectives perfectly. Chine colle´ is a way to use some of the paper scraps — prints, studies, watercolors, paintings and collage papers I’ve saved. I’m using the old textbooks and readers that have become familiar in my artwork, incorporating childhood motifs along with fish, birds and the occasional nuclear bomb or tree. My personal vocabulary of marks and shapes continues in my new pieces — spirals, circles, spheres, peculiar cross hatching, jabs, roots, geometric shapes and voluptuous strokes. And of course, I’m always passionate about Nature and that’s prominent in my new work: leaves, branches, grasses and other botanical images; water, waves, currents, raindrops; and animals both large and microscopic.

I’m curious to see where I go. That’s a great motivator. I’ll post more when I get something I like enough to say, “This is what I’m doing for the next show.” In the meantime, it’s just a direction.

03.02.201509.20.2022

Artist Date 7: Stretch It Out with Yoga

09.02.201409.20.2022

1+1=1 Gallery is Moving – and having a Big Sale

Thank you to everyone who has become a collector of our art, who has come in to 1+1=1 Gallery to look, appreciate, help, buy, and just visit, get/give hugs. We couldn’t have done 11 months without you!

Now we are asking for your help and support again. This time we need cash flow to remodel our new gallery down the street.

Imagine one of my framed prints on a wall in your house … above the fireplace, in your dining room, or on a wall in your bedroom. Somewhere you can see it often, experience the symbolism and the personal meaning that only you get from living with a piece of art. Can you visualize it? Are you interested?

Now you can purchase one of my prints — for the month of September only — at a big discount. All of the framed numbered prints we have at our gallery (see thumbnails or Flickr album link below) are on sale — 20% off just through September 30, 2014.
The black stained all-wood frames are made by Tim Carney and professionally assembled by a local framer with glass, hanging hardware and archival mats.
We are moving at the end of September to a bigger, better space at 434 North Last Chance Gulch. After we move, prices have to go up because our rent and all of our expenses are increasing.
We take credit cards through Square and are willing to ship.
Link to the album of available prints, with poetic descriptions, print and frame sizes.
Come see the prints in person, at 1+1=1 Gallery, 335 North Last Chance Gulch.

Below are the available prints. We only have one of each on hand, so hurry! Please visit the above link to see more details.

mixed media artwork — “Passing Storm on the Saskatchwan Prairie” $350 ($280 with 20% discount)

“Landscape with Old Loneliness and Storm” $350 $280

“Woman Child” $650 ($520 with 20% discount)

mixed media painting — “Fire Spirit” $695 ($556 with 20% discount)

Here are some pre-remodeling views of our new space:

434NLastChance — View inside our new gallery space (pre-remodeling) How about that red and black carpet?

1+1=1 will be open our usual hours until September 19th. After the 19th, we’ll have odd hours because I’ll be working with Tim (and whoever shows up to help) to remodel the new space. I can be reached by phone (431-9931) if you want to come shop at the gallery at 335 North Last Chance Gulch. I’d love to see you at either place. Or email me if you want to buy one of the prints. Thanks again for all of your support!

Love, Maureen

08.27.201409.20.2022

Collaborative Art Piece Benefits Teen Moms

The winning bidder of Girl Power generously donated the piece back to the Florence Crittenton Home and it is on loan to 1+1=1 Gallery to exhibit for the month of September. 1+1=1 will host an open house and artist talk on Sunday evening, September 7th. The gallery is located at 335 North Last Chance Gulch. I would love to see you all there — come down and enjoy some delicious food, beverages and great company.

Whew! Last week I finished Girl Power just in time for the benefit auction for Florence Crittenton. This year was the fourth annual Support Our Girls event in which businesses in Helena contribute whimsical and sometimes fancy “bras” to be auctioned off.

When Florence Crittenton began this event four years ago, I was still working there as the life-skills counselor for teen mothers. Together with the girls who were there at the time, I designed and made a bra for that first auction. It was absolutely beautiful and all of the girls who worked on it were proud of their ideas and contributions. Below are some photos of that very first art-bra, titled Sassy Girls, Marvelous Moms.

"Sassy Girls Marvelous Moms" 2011 Art Bra by Maureen Shaughnessy

Anyway … this year, the benefit organizers invited four artists (in addition to local businesses) to create pieces for the auction. I was one of the featured artists. I created a piece based on the idea of empowering our daughters to be independent, strong, healthy individuals, thus the title Girl Power. It’s really about more than girl-power (read the artist statement below for explanation)

Girl Power

When Carrie asked me to make a piece for the Support Our Girls benefit auction, I immediately thought that instead of making a “bra,” I would like to make an art piece using a torso of a breastfeeding mother. In my mind I named it “Girl Power,” and although that name is whimsical, it is also serious.

Florence Crittenton holds young teen moms in supporting hands while they make critical life choices …. choices for themselves and for their babies. One of these choices is whether to breastfeed their babies or not. When it works out, it is one of the best gifts a mother can give to her newborn.

Yet, there are many other ways these young mothers rise above their often traumatic beginnings to become capable loving mothers. The Florence Crittenton staff delight in the girls, and hold high standards for them … expecting them to learn, explore, and be successful. Yes, these moms are still girls. They are still children. They are still learning as they raise their own children. It is an awesome miracle and so amazing to watch them as they mature, fall down, pick themselves back up again and hold their babies with love.

As I thought about all of this I wondered about Girl Power and what we, as parents and caring adults, can teach our daughters — teach all girls — to help them embody their own power. So they can live successful, happy, healthy lives and have strong loving relationships. I realized that no matter what we teach our daughters, we also have to teach our sons to be whole, happy human beings. It doesn’t work to lift up one gender and not the other.

So I asked my community of friends to contribute to this piece by telling me what they wanted to teach our children … our daughters and our sons. The response was amazing. I received over a hundred comments, many of them from former clients of Florence Crittenton. Reading through them brought tears to my eyes. I could not include every single thought I received in the piece, but I hand wrote as many as I could even inside the torso where you just have to imagine what I wrote. I hope you also feel the power. Girl Power. Boy Power. The Power of Love. And the Power of Connection.

The images and personal symbols in this piece come from my own experiences growing up in the 50s and 60s … of learning about and connecting with nature, and of finding my way in life. I believe that it is through a deep connection with all life, that human beings become fully human and truly powerful. I was privileged to work for almost five years as the life skills counselor at Flo Crit, and I hope that in my way I was able to teach the girls something of that connection.

~ Maureen Shaughnessy

Here are a few more photos showing details of Girl Power:

Everyone who comes to the open house on the 7th will have a chance to sign the back of the piece, and add your own thoughts to the text if you want to, and if your contribution didn’t make it onto the front of the piece (I tried to include as many as I could, but there were SO many comments from the community I couldn’t write them all on the front.)

See you on the 7th! (email me with questions: [email protected])

11.02.201309.20.2022

Wood, Trees and the Spirit of Nature

Photo of Cherry Tree - Dining Set by Tim Carney

1+1=1 is becoming a reality! On November 8th our little month-long gallery will have an opening reception during the Helena Fall Art Walk. The reception is from 6 to 9 pm.

The idea of 1+1=1 began when my husband, Tim and I were talking with our friends Mike and Colleen over dinner at their house. We were asking them how they helped Doug Turman get his start as an artist and gallery owner and Mike told us about the popup gallery he and Doug had years ago. Now Doug and his lovely wife, Mary Lee, have the always-happening Turman Larison Contemporary (art gallery) in downtown Helena. And it just so happens that the place we found for our popup gallery is right next door to Doug and Mary Lee’s gallery. Awesome!

We have been wanting a place to show Tim’s studio furniture and my photography and paintings for a long time, and the idea of experimenting with a temporary gallery was enticing.

So we’re doing it! We found an empty retail space on Last Chance Gulch and Mike helped us arrange a deal with the owners of the building for just one month to try out this gallery idea. It’s pretty last minute because we wanted to have our opening during the Art Walk, and be open for the holiday shopping season before Christmas.

Tim and I share a common esthetic and creative vision, although we have very different ways to express that vision. He works with the spirit of trees through his hands, making functional art furniture. I express my connection with trees and nature through photography, painting and mixed media collage. Our home is filled with art from both of us and our friends and family. We live a blessed, simple life and we both feel lucky that we can make a living creating art that we hope helps others connect with Nature on a deep level.