ABOUT
CONTACT
Sebastian Shepherd is an interdisciplinary artist, musician and educator. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Glass from Kent State University in 2013.
Sebastian currently resides in Akron, Ohio.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Measured disregard of rational thought during the making process allows me a glimpse of the world we truly inhabit. Crude human senses and archaic neurobiological systems have been built upon over and over by innumerable and unknowable influences, a foggy cybernetic favela. We must access naivete and purity of mind from within our short, overencumbered existences. Through art, I embrace the futility of thought as a part of life's beauty.
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Much of my art evokes an unconscious and automatic response in the viewer, from curiosity to disgust to tactile attraction. I play within the thin line separating desire from revulsion, safety from danger, embracing from smothering. This uncanniness makes us reflect on our symbolic framework. If a work initially entices, it may also be somatically repellent. A pallet of visual, material and archetypal elements are networked to emphasize, vibrate, and harmonize. New bodies of work usually begin with a distinct, but unidentified, urge. Reacting to prototypes is a very important part of my process, and each piece unfolds differently through time spent making.
I tend to make work in series, or at least within a theme, as a way to analyze different characters that have emerged along the way. My interests, media, and practices are diverse; self-study over time enables me to recognize and cultivate the origins and potentials of my creative drive. By collecting objects, researching and testing methods, sketching, modeling, or ruminating, I pursue this impulse. Temporal limits prevail; impasses force improvisation. Solutions shedding light upon hidden nooks and crannies of our collective mind spur growth and refinement.
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Reverend Sebastian Shepherd, March 2025