Award-winning Shannon Chapman relaxes for a few minutes during her busy summer.
Shannon Chapman reveals much of her philosophy of life through her favorite quote: “… no one is born a great cook, one learns by doing.”
“It’s one thing to see what happens and it’s another thing to do it,” Chapman said of Julia Child’s words from her book about life in France, where Childs fell in love with French food and found her true calling.
“For instance,” Chapman says, “It’s one thing to watch people draw, which is really helpful, but it’s another thing to pick up the pencil and draw what you see.”
The 20-year-old woman, a 2011 Lyme-Old Lyme High School graduate, is working on a bachelor’s degree of fine arts in painting at Boston University (BU) and plans to earn her art education certificate upon graduation, followed by work on her master’s degree. Right now her sights are set on the fall when she applies for a spring semester abroad in Venice.
Green pepper in clay painted with acrylics by Shannon Chapman.
Helping her along the way will be the $2,000 scholarship she won from the Latin Network for the Visual Arts (LNVA) based in Gales Ferry. The nonprofit arts organization sponsored the award, which the Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut distributed this summer. It is the third scholarship given by the LNVA to students pursuing the visual arts in college, in keeping with the group’s mission to enrich the southeastern Connecticut community through visual arts created by contemporary Latin artists whose roots lie in Romance language-speaking countries.
LNVA Co-Founder Mimi Daumy noted in Chapman’s thank-you letter that the student explains, “You are making it possible for me to focus on my studies while I am in school” even though she is quite busy, “… in a cooperative house doing chores and cooking dinner in return for affordable housing.
“The LNVA is proud to help students such as Shannon,” Daumy notes, “and the organization is elated that this scholarship will continue to help local area students seeking higher degrees in fine art.”
Charcoal sketch of a woman by Shannon Chapman.
The LNVA celebrates its 10th anniversary this year and has produced six major international exhibits showcasing Latin artists from around the globe at the Alexey von Schlippe Gallery at the University of Connecticut Avery Point Campus, with the seventh scheduled for fall 2014.
Like a good cook finessing ingredients, Chapman uses myriad mediums and techniques in creating her art – whether it be her charcoal drawings, a cardboard sculpture of a triceratops’ skull, a lifelike, shiny-green clay pepper or oil portraits on canvas or wood.
She based the cardboard sculpture off the skull of a triceratops from the Harvard Museum of Natural History, first creating sketches, then working with cardboard and hot glue, applying specific strengthening techniques for strong layers.
Chapman also enjoys portrait painting because each one is new and interesting. She worked from a mirror for her self-portrait, while a portrait of her longtime friend, Sarah, allowed her to focus on facial features and likeness, and she developed her portrait of Renee, one of her housemates, through a series of mini portraits.
“I love to work with clay, charcoal and oil paints,” Chapman says, adding, “I love the three-dimensionality of clay because it informs my paintings. It allows me to bring more depth into my work.”
Chapman continues, “When I work with charcoal, I feel that there are many different techniques that you can use to create cool effects. Oil paint is my main medium of choice; I love mixing colors and exploring new ways to apply the paint to a canvas or wooden board.”
“Callie” by Shannon Chapman.
She had fun with her painting of Callie, the dog, which allowed her to explore new textures, as fur requires different brushstrokes.
Chapman continues her creativity with art throughout the summer at Old Lyme’s Florence Griswold Museum, where she prepares art activities for children and works as a camp counselor. In addition, during the school year, she assists with office work and teaching at the Brookline Arts Center in Massachusetts.
While art may be Chapman’s true calling, cooking and nutrition rank high, as evidenced by her responsibilities for food donations and relay participation in Boston University’s Relay for Life and her organic gardening in helping start a Real Food Challenge Campaign at BU.
For a clay sculpture, she chose an organic food object – a green pepper – which required news skills in looking for organic forms, enlarging it in clay and painting with acrylic.
Her first priority aside from academics as an art student consists of the demands and responsibilities of living in and managing affordable housing for undergraduate women. Translation: chores. Weekly chores, weekend chores, managing chore rotations for bathrooms, chore rotations for the house and cooking several nights a semester for 24 people.
“Being a part of the Harriet E. Richards (HER) Cooperative House at Boston University has been the absolute best thing that has happened to me while at school, among many other amazing opportunities,” Chapman wrote in her scholarship-winning essay to the Community Foundation.
She noted that she is part of a community on campus that has a rich history dating back to 1928 that creates affordable housing for undergraduate women. The cooperative house provides affordable living for students who need it to complete their education and it operates on a philosophy based on past traditions and a life book by which members abide as a whole.
“In return for reduced cost of living,” she wrote, “we complete duties and promote a healthy community within our house.”
Chapman’s “HER Cooperative House” oil on canvas painting, at 5 ft. by 7 ft., is her largest and presented challenges of incorporating many of her cooperative house members doing daily activities, while not having them sit for her at the same time.
Chapman, who has two sisters, including a twin, and a brother, is the daughter of educators. Along with her parents, she credits her high school art teacher with influencing her decision to teach art and said she wants her students to receive a strong drawing foundation.
“I believe that technical/spatial skills are very important for developing students,” she said. “It allows the brain to think beyond numbers and words. All of this leads to a creative mind.”
