Shanelle Harrison

About the Artist

Shanelle Harrison is a visual artist, educator, and author primarily working in printmaking, drawing, and mixed-media art. She was born in Columbia, MD, and received her B.A. from Morgan State University in 2019. As an artist, Shanelle explores sociological and psychological conditions to convey a story and begin a dialogue. As an educator, Shanelle teaches art for elementary school children, hosts art lessons for beginning artists, and creates art videos on YouTube for people who cannot afford art lessons. She enjoys reading books, taking road trips, and embraces the idea of spiritual journeys. Recently, Shanelle exhibited artwork for her first solo show, TRANSITION, at the Motor House Gallery in Baltimore, MD. She has exhibited work at The Washington County Museum of Fine Art in Hagerstown, MD, The Charles H. Wright Museum in Detroit, MI, and The American Hungarian Foundation in New Brunswick, NJ. Shanelle is the author/ illustrator of the interactive educational art children's book, Curious Colors; self-published in 2021.

Artist's Statement

The imperfections in printmaking has resonance with the lives I am exploring. I use the accidents within the medium to convey those imperfections. My current work explores the behavior of addiction and the mental anguish that happens in the minds of people suffering from addiction. The circuit wires in some prints represent the rewiring occurring in a normal functioning brain resulting in addiction. Brain rewiring changes the way people act and think, forcing them to hyper-focus on specific behaviors and actions. I want to create work to inform that addiction can start as a choice and transpires into uncontrollable disease