Shaun is a soft-spoken father of two, who just finds as much time as he can to create his art in between supporting his family. Like most working artists, he doesn’t have nearly enough time to truly represent himself, or get his work out to the public. This is quite a travesty as his art is bright, sometimes hard-edged and gritty, and always wonderfully psychedelic. Shaun combines an urban graffiti technique with the sensibilities of a surrealist, while keeping a uniqueness that is seldom seen in an art world filled with cookie-cutter Picassos and done-five-thousand-times landscapes.

   Shaun has broken away from any direct influence from other artists, but when he was younger he used to pour over art book after art book in the library. He has drawn some inspiration from Japanese woodcuts, with their two-dimensional look; he has a current fascination with getting things to be as purposely two-dimensional as possible. Shaun adds shadows and shading only where needed to differentiate one object from another.

   This talented local artist has been drawing since he was three, and was taught by his mother who has a Masters and a Bachelor in Fine Arts from FSU. Part of his formal training comes from his days as a student of Douglas Anderson, though he admits that he got a bit burned out on art from that experience. He also got in a bit of trouble while there. At a crucial moment, right before Shaun was to give a speech to save his grades, a police officer came into the classroom and asked to speak with him. It seems that they had pegged him for a good bit of graffiti art around town, which Shaun denied. He may have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for a scrap of paper in his backpack that bore the same tag. He ended up confessing to a few out of the many instances they tried to charge him with, and the cop allowed him to finish his speech in handcuffs thusly saving Shaun from failing. He now tries to put his graffiti in the form of stickers and in places people won’t mind. Shaun came away from Douglas Anderson hating art until he attended the more nurturing Florida School of the Arts in Palatka.

   For a while Shaun was going to pursue a career in illustration, though he has thought against that now because he doesn’t want to be burned out on his art again. His current favorite style would indeed lend well to the illustration field with his very precise and fine-line ink drawings. He enjoys painting sporadically, but has to be in the proper mood for it and have a large space because he loves to work mural size. He doesn’t see his work to be the least bit spiritual; he appreciates form for what it is. Shaun has gotten to the point that he is not occupied at all with rounding things out and making all of his shadows correct, he just makes things the way he wants too.

   Keep an eye out for Shaun’s art books at Fuel and other locations. He has one collection of his line work out right now entitled ‘One Dozen Delectable Dreams’, and is planning to compile his newer work into a book soon.