Shawn Skabelund

For over twenty years, the pine forests of northern Arizona have become my studio, not as subject matter to draw or paint in, but to observe and look, discover and collect materials in order to create new art forms. My work explores what Wendell Berry called the "unsettling of America," namely, the effects, the marks and the changes that humans make on the land and cultures of a given area. My installations demonstrate my desire to create art that gives viewers time and space to think about their local communities, economies, and ecosystems they inhabit. It is my hope that my art initiates questions which remind viewers of their importance, their responsibilities, and their place on Earth. To prepare for my work, I research the history of the place to learn how the interaction of the wild and the human has determined the direction and cultural makeup of that place.

This research, or what I call "collaborating with place," helps me understand what I want to explore in my work and share with my audience. 

Shawn Skabelund Bio

Shawn Skabelund is an artist and curator based in Flagstaff, AZ, working with and in specific landscapes to reveal their complex issues, ecologies and cultural histories. He grew up in the small logging town of McCall, ID, in the mountains of Payette National Forest. His fondest childhood memories were of days picking huckleberries, which would become the root of his creative process. He received his MFA in Drawing/Painting from the University of Iowa in 1990 and his BFA in Drawing from Utah State University in 1987. 

For over three decades, Shawn has been a successful site-specific, place-based installation artist, creating over eighty installations throughout the United States. In particular, he is interested in the ecological consequences of anthropogenic climate change by exploring humanity’s relationship with fire, both in its origin and now in its destruction of Earth, in what is known as the pyrocene. During the past decade, he has also curated several exhibitions that explore themes that are topical and of grave concern, from migration along the U.S/Mexico border (Beyond the Border: The Wall, the People and the Land) to catastrophic wildfires in the Southwest (Fires of Change) and uranium mining and its impact on the Diné (Hope & Trauma in a Poisoned Land). He is currently working on two new projects/exhibitions focusing on Resolution Copper Mine on the sacred land of the Apache (Oak Flat), and the localized and global impact of uranium mining and the development, creation, use and testing of atomic bombing. 

Shawnscabelund.com