Red Lodge Clay Center – Short-Term Resident (AIA) 2023, Long-Term Resident 2023-2025
Shannon owo Webb was born and raised on the island O‘ahu of Hawai‘i. There she received her BFA in ceramics at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa in 2017. During the COVID pandemic, she left the island for graduate school and received an MFA at the University of Montana in 2023. After two years as a Long-Term Resident at the Red Lodge Clay center, Shannon became an artist in residence at the Saratoga Clay Arts Center in New York, and is continuing to pursue residencies. “I reinterpret Korean folktales, mythology, and customs to tell my story as a half-Korean who is estranged from my heritage. My concern with displacement and my search for belonging takes shape as ceramic sculptures–primarily brightly colored figurative characters.”
What people call spirit or soul—I think of it as a kind of energy that flows through all things. My artwork is about being receptive to these energies in order to understand my place in the world and to move through it in a meaningful way. Currently, this concerns the estrangement from my Korean heritage, a displacement from home, and how those energies collide with the ones here in Montana.
I embrace my mixed race and upbringing as who I am, which also means that I feel responsible for the cultural growth that can emerge from this ambiguous identity. Traditionally, teachings are passed down through stories. Stories are made real through images and sculptures. We acknowledge these realities through practice. I start by practicing reverence for the world through my own means. These actions are seeded from tradition, but adapted to fulfill my needs. It could involve a specific interaction with the land, celebrating a celestial event, or a gesture of gratitude. I take those experiences and make them real through ceramic and mixed media sculptures, alluding to the core concepts through symbolic representation. Flowers, water, human and animal figures are recurring symbols I use to communicate transformation, interconnectivity, and the presence of spiritual energy. My art is a process to understand my intentions as I create my own path in the world and a reflection on what I leave behind.