07 Feb Reception for “Nebulas and Stardust”, Sheldon Shalley Showcase at Noblesville Creates
Sheldon Shalley’s creative style of painting emerges from one of three methods: pulling images from his dreams, meetings in meditation sessions, and images he sees during Shamanic journeying. Why these methods? Sheldon is a psychotherapist, and uses dreams, mindfulness, hypno-therapy, shamanic healing and energy medicine to help his clients. With these tools, he is able to take these mindful journeys himself, using art to connect with parts of the psyche that can express and heal our painful stories. His art honors his encounters and experiences during his dreams, which helps him connect with them more deeply.
For this exhibit, Sheldon focuses on the energy of objects. As an energy worker, he often sees energy in matter. “When working with a client, I may see what is vibrating in their field. All matter is energy at its deepest level.”
Sheldon sees the energy of an object and aims to recreate that in his paintings. “...The backgrounds of [my] paintings sort of look like energy fields—forms, shapes—but in those, there is an outline of an object that one can see or discern. A voice inside me says, Sheldon, go back to the original dream of how you painted—[creating an] ambiguous background,” and Sheldon’s exhibit responds in kind.
While Sheldon will create what he sees, viewers may pull their own vision out of his work. “As I see paintings in my mind, there is more form to it than just swirling paint, there’s a division in the energy. I’m going to paint energy, not sure how, but I’ll do it and then I’ll see the vision in that energy.”
See the full exhibit "Nebulas and Stardust" in the Stephenson House Wednesday-Friday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Meet him at his free Public Reception (also April's First Friday) from 6-9 p.m. in the Stephenson House on Noblesville Creates campus.
