Shawna Marie Franklin Art

I am Painter, a printmaker, a scientist, a reader, an athlete, and a student of LIFE.

Shawna Marie Franklin is a Washington based multi-disciplinary visual artist.    Shawna holds a Bachelor of Science in Apparel Design from the University of MN.  After graduation, Shawna worked in London with a fashion designer which guided her understanding of the intersection of creativity with commerce.  Returning to the U of MN, Shawna studied Biology and went on to work as a field biologist further honing her observational skills and cementing her connection to the non-human world.   Moving to the Pacific Northwest, Shawna then spent twenty years experiencing the world at sea level as a professional coach and co-owner of an award winning paddlesports school.  The goal was to immerse clients into the natural world and teach them what they needed to know to successfully navigate and appreciate the natural world.  She is the first woman to circumnavigate Iceland by kayak.   Shawna has studied under artists Terry L. Johnson and Klara Glosova.  She is a recent recipient of the Society of Botanical Art Diploma Program.   Her choice of artistic motifs, style, and worldview have been informed by her unconventional pathway to becoming a professional artist, her deliberate submersion into nature, and a lifelong pursuit of color, design, pattern, and form.   Shawna moved to Orcas Island in 1995 with her husband Leon Somme, and together they live with Francis and Fletcher, two favorite feline muses.   Shawna finally has the time to bring it all together in her home based studio on Orcas Island.  

Shawna Marie Franklin’s recent art is a deep dive into the places she literally cannot go.  Always fascinated with varying perspectives and wondering how humans and other animals see and experience the world.   Shawna begins her process with direct observations of the natural world in the form of drawings,  photos, and essays along with her imagination to form a story-image of what it may be like to be a wasp, a kelp frond, a tree, a crow, or another human.  Exploring these concepts through printmaking, painting, and drawings,  Shawna seeks to create an image that is relatable from a scientific and a philosophical vantage point.  She has a strong interest in portraying the fact that humans are only a part of a much wider interdependent ecosystem.  Shawna feels that by taking the time to appreciate “otherness”  we widen our circle of empathy, and by doing so, we are able to live together on this “only-planet “with others in a more balanced,  nuanced and healthy manner. “ Her art is diverse, layered, and thoughtful.  Her recent projects, The Kelp Project , and The Vespula Project - I am a Wasp reflect this lifetime pursuit.