We are jumping back into our Meet The Maker series with a wonderful interview with Shauna!
Shauna is an admirable maker, as well as an excellent creative, thinker, and listener. If you have met Shauna in the shop, I'm sure you have picked up on her glow. ✨
What role has creating played in your life?
Shauna views creating as a way to look within herself and also believes looking within is a powerful first step to creating. With whatever creative prowess she is focusing on, connection to herself plays an important role.
"Creating helps me look through my inner landscape and find parts of me that are in there. My inner landscape is long and varied and things hide, so I have to quietly look and be inside there by myself and then I can start to create."
Where do you find creative energy?
"Through friends. Other makers. Looking at museums, ads, watching movies that inspire me, walking through nature, and just quiet time. That’s where I find a lot of energy."
Shauna loves connecting with others and learning about their creative endeavors. She says:
"Half of the fun is talking about it and planning!"
What brings you inspiration?
Shauna finds inspiration from going out of her comfort zone. It is important to her to listen openly to others, think outside of the box, and stay curious in order to gain new understandings.
"If you listen with curiosity instead of thinking about what you want to say back or what your opinion is, it expands your mind and your way of thinking."
What is your favorite thing you've made?
"My children. Things can be my favorite on and off, when I make them and when I like to wear them, but my environment is constantly changing. The things around me kind of float and I have feelings about them and that’s my favorite thing, it’s being in the moment. And the people that I have around me and the way it ebbs and flows and changes shape."
"My favorite thing is the world I create around me."
Where do your creative roots lie?
Shauna's creative roots come from her grandparents and the way they viewed the world. She also learned to be creative from being a responsible older sister who helped lead her younger siblings.
"Nan was a gambler and she’d gamble on almost anything that seemed like it was a good idea. And she was okay if it wasn’t. She created a sense of freedom and not fear when it came to edges and cliffs and ideas. Papa, he created time pieces and he had so much patience. He could get lost in his thoughts for a long time and he would take you with him because he would tell you story after story after story. There’s that, and there’s another part, which is that I was the responsible older sister. I didn’t have parents around to lead us, so I lead often. And it often felt like I would just kind of have to think of things and find a way."
Where have you been finding comfort recently?
"In free thought. Unstructured free thought. I find comfort in that because I don't feel like there are any walls or boundaries. New things flow and ideas blossom. I find peace in nature. The flow of a river, the sounds of an ocean. The dirt under your feet can feel really grounding. The loamy smell of soil and decomposing leaves, sticks and stuff like that. Talking to people who are interested and interesting. I think that’s what makes a person interesting, that they're interested."
