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| | ARTIST NAME: | Rae, Shona | | ACCESSION NUMBER: | 2017.016.001.AB | | TITLE: | THE SINGING BONE | | DATE: | 2013 | | CATEGORY: | Sculpture | | MEDIUM: | sterling silver, deer bones | | DIMENSIONS: | Actual: 30.3 × 9.6 cm (11 15/16 × 3 3/4 in.) | | COLLECTION: | Alberta Foundation for the Arts |
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| | OTHER HOLDINGS: | Rae, Shona | | ARTIST BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: | “I have a deep appreciation for the magic of everyday life,” says Shona Rae, and indeed her artworks are influenced by the fairytales, folklore and myths that have always fascinated her. Shona grew up in British Columbia, and studied Sculpture and Ceramics at Fraser Valley College, Abbotsford, in the 1980s. She was a successful ceramic sculptor for a decade. But as a result of a powerful dream in which she saw herself hammering metal, she changed her artistic direction. At the age of 36, she began studying goldsmithing and metal arts at the Kootenay School of the Arts (KSA), Nelson, BC. She then earned a BFA with Distinction in Jewellery & Metals at ACAD, Calgary, in 2000. Here she discovered that, for her, “metal is clay” – and she applies her ceramic techniques and experience to jewellery-making, with original results. She later returned to KSA and then to ACAD as an instructor.
Shona has won numerous government grants, national and international awards, including the Award of Excellence from the Alberta Craft Council in 2015, the Alumni Award from ACAD, and the Steel Trophy Award from the Canadian Metal Arts Guild in 2016.
From 2004-2011, Shona ran an art jewellery gallery, INFLUX, in Calgary. Elements of story-telling and humour still characterize her work. Tiny characters populate her jewellery, such as the goddesses of prehistory and antiquity, or Alice in Wonderland creatures, reborn on rings and pendants. In her “Surreal Series”, especially, Rae plays with archetypal characters and gives voice to her dreams. The fragility of life is represented by delicate, jewelled skulls and skeletons.
Art-making also gives her a vehicle to express her concern with serious environmental issues. In this technology-driven society, she takes pleasure in using her hands to carve natural materials such as bone and antler.
Augmenting her visual art practice with her love of performance, she has professional training as a clown, and also appears as the lead singer and song-writer for “Shona Rae and The VooDoo Hand”, a Calgary “swampabilly” band.
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