Today we’d like to introduce you to Shelby Sult.
Hi Shelby, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Really, I am a nonbinary, multidisciplinary artist. Right now, I am an oil painter in Austin, Texas. This is my second time being in Austin actually – I was born here. I grew up in Stephenville, Texas then went on to San Marcos to study visual art and dance as a Strutter at Texas State University. While studying abroad in Florence a friend asked me why I wasn’t also majoring in art history. It was a really good question whose answer I had been seeking (I am a student like I am an artist, always wanting more). I added the major to my fine arts path, where I specialized in painting, and minored in both Spanish and honors studies.
If that all sounds dreadfully academic to you, it was. In the year and a half since finishing school my life has changed so much. Healing is a catalyst for change; I have gained broader spiritual understanding while discovering and growing into my queer identity. My decision to throw away the map just completely transformed the story of my life. I’m reaching destinations I couldn’t have imagined existing. I still treat all that I do with the same amount of reverence and dedication, but now my studies do not separate me from my experience – they are the same thing. Myself, made up of my every moment, remains loving, curious, and open.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road has always had its friction, but things really got weird in 2020 when I gained certain truths and madness, and started changing my life. I moved into an apartment by myself, started a job, and began my final semester all in the same week. Though necessary, it was a huge, naïve undertaking. The home in my mind was falling apart piece after piece and this experience was exacerbated by my loneliness and lack of support. Becoming sick with COVID before finals was an untimely blow. Between dissociative episodes I would try to work, blowing out the light in my mind just to get it done. I somehow graduated with my GPA and my body intact. If not for my partner, my cat, and part-time bartending, my state would have been even worse.
I started down the road toward burnout recovery without any idea of the emotional whiplash the year had in store. My long-term relationship ended; I bleached my hair. I celebrated a duo-exhibit of paintings opening; I bleached my hair. My cat began to die of cancer; I bleached my hair. My gender identity expanded; I dyed my hair pink. I decided I’d had enough and started therapy; I cut off all my hair. New support, including moving with friends to Austin, was a lifesaver but life kept going. My long-awaited psych appointment fell through; I bleached my hair. A loved one died; I bleached my hair. Sinking down, eventually my feet felt the bottom and I pushed up. I took a breath when I became medicated for my anxiety and ADHD.
Medication and therapy have been instrumental to living like my glasses are instrumental to seeing. Since, I’ve completed a six-month painting project, gained clarity on the trajectory of my life, and strengthened healthy relationships. My brain isn’t such a hellscape and all of the years’ lessons in grief and love have transformed my heart. I’m finding out how to exist. My success is not in my self-sacrifice for achievements, nor in my survival of hard times, but in simply being. Authentically. Life and all its opportunities flow in this place of being.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I make photorealistic oil paintings where I focus on the powerful influence that color, and its relationships, has on a viewer. I’m constantly tweaking my process to improve my paintings’ radiance; this scientific attention to detail is what sets my work apart. I build up a painting in thin layers of oil paint over a fluorescent underpainting. I’m very careful about layering and containing areas of color so as to not muddy the final result. My process, craftsmanship, and colorful, figurative, watery imagery is what I am known for.
No one taught me to paint like this exactly. I felt encouraged to paint in whatever way made sense to me and thus combined my thinly-layered, dry brush method with my fascination in color theory. My interest in consciousness and desire to communicate my inner experience constitute the substance behind my work and drive me to create particular imagery. I stage a photoshoot in a bath full of colorful water and layer interesting fabrics over a semi-submerged (volunteer) model. The result is a fascinating image where figure, color, and fabric are inextricably woven together. I then edit and paint from this reference. I use color to lure in, imagery to hold, all while telling my experience to whoever is listening closely enough to hear it.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
I love Marilyn Minter’s advice, which is, “don’t do this unless you have no choice.” This is good advice because she recognizes the destitution, the difficulty of being an artist. I would encourage everyone to make art but I would not encourage anyone to be an artist. If you must be an artist, if you feel that hunger, you know. You’re not waiting for anyone to tell you that. The only choice to make is when to leap, and where. She says, “once you make a commitment to being an artist, the universe makes room for you somehow. But you have to make a commitment.” Release yourself. Stick your neck out for your work and I think it will work out.
I would tell my past self, and any artist starting out, to notice what sparks your curiosity and follow that. Lean into your natural way of creating as this is your unique process. Find people who align with your direction or be equipped to go alone often, because your environment will determine your practice. Write down anything that resonates with you. Turn the work into play. Pay attention. Be deliberate. Everything is only as ___ as you let it be.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.shelbysult.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shelbysultart/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shelbysultart
- Other: https://www.patreon.com/shelbysult
