Shayna Blumert grew up in Northwestern Connecticut, in a small town nestled in the Appalachian Mountains. This bucolic environment instilled in her a deep reverence and appreciation for the natural world. Today, she lives and works in Portland, Maine, where she is a recent graduate of Maine College of Art. Drawing upon her formative experiences in nature, as well as the philosophies of the 18th and 19th century Romantics, she creates whimsical silkscreen pieces reminiscent of fairy-tale illustrations and the Sublime landscape.
Statement:
“A congregation of dark, tangled organic forms recreates the ominous beauty of a twilight forest, as sundry layers of fabric engulf one another, creating an immersive experience. All elements of the installation are drawn by hand, and then subsequently screen-printed onto hand-colored fabric. These curvilinear cutouts mimic dense foliage, delicate insects, and intertwining branches, as the undulating forms blossom into a whimsical woodland environment.
The decorative, mandala-like cut paper pieces communicate the exquisite fragility of leaves, branches, and wild creatures, and speak to the tenuous balance of ecosystems as a whole. Creating within the framework of the Romantic Landscape tradition, I craft an aesthetic tribute to the dwindling presence of an untouched wilderness, attempting to present an antidote to the global trends of climate change and environmental degradation.”
