Shanna Bruschi is a Bay Area artist, having drawn and painted her whole life on her own, she now bringsher background as an art-director/ graphic designer to her current work.Shanna lived in Italy for manyyears, studying art in Rome, and Siena, where despite working as a translator, spent her free time absorbing the beauty and art surrounding her (informing much of her work still today).Shanna lives North of the Golden Gate bridge with her Roman husband, a chef and restaurateur, and her two daughters. Shanna is also a marathon-runner, and can often be found on Mount Tam's trails, where she derives so much of her daily inspiration.
“My work is influenced by what I see, confounded by what I experience, and then completely altered by the time the paint hits the canvas.
I am mostly drawn to abstraction recently because of it’s lack of confines….the challenge of creating something provocative out of nothing, and never knowing what to expect.
My process is very physical, in which I energetically cover the canvas with thick layers of paint, mostly with a palette knife, that are worked and reworked, scraped and peeled.The texture becomes an object as well as a space; it is empty yet has a restless energy.This method allows me little control, suggesting emotions and states of being rather than detailing. I love the challenge of rebelling against the rules of order and finding passages of harmony in the discord. Music is an integral part of my process.Loud, rhythmic music pulsating in my studio helps take me to an altered state of mind where brushstrokes often follow the beat and forms materialize, simultaneously revealing and disappearing as the music moves me.
I am drawn to dichotomies… movement/stillness…organic/structured…and surrender to the sense of play as the images and materials take form.
Painting is a very visceral experience for me and is just as much about the process itself asit is the product. This recent work is very much about my own personal voyage/exploration.None of the paintings can be placed but they all involve the journey from one destination to the unknown….internal worlds that I am attempting to externalize….the landscapes of my mind.”