Monday Guest Blogger: Do You Know About the Artist Ms. Shelley Turley? You Should

Full disclosure:  Shelley Turley is my sister!  Yes, that is how I know her (although I'm certain our paths would have crossed even if we did not share the same dna), but that's not the reason she's on this blog.  Point blank:  Shelley Turley is one of my favorite contemporary artists.  Shelley Turley is the artist you don't know about, but should.  Over the years, she's explored in her work the mythology of nurses, hippies, new agers, seekers, healers, pastoralists, spirituralists, and naturalists in American culture. She's been making art steadily for decades and showing in numerous galleries in the west and New York, during which she was a Brooklyn resident for ten years.  I'm gonna say it:   Shelley Turley should be famous.  Perpetually humble and self-effacing, when I asked Shelley what she'd like our readers to know about her, she answered:  "I always strive to do my best.  Even when my best has not been very good, I keep trying." Check out her art here.  Do it!   


Here's fellow artist Jesse Wiedel's excellent blog post about Shelley from 2009.  

An old one--but one of my all time favorite paintings of Shelley's.

Shelley answers our four questions, June 2012:

1.  Are you in a tight place?  If so, what are you trying to do about it? Yes.  I've been in a tight place since 1979.  When I'm feeling especially "tight", I always turn to one of my favorite teacher's, Adyashanti.   It's so easy in this age of technology; I just go to his website and listen to one of his talks.  I know that sounds super corny, and I actually don't consider myself to be a particularly spiritual person, but listening to him always seems to do the trick with cutting through the high anxiety.  I also keep meaning to get that daily meditation practice going . . . I know that would help a lot.  2. What do you want to get done this year? I would LOVE to have a big beautiful new body of work finished this year, with a updated website to match. Cut paper and watercolor on paper 3.  What inspires you? Oh, geniuses inspire me.  I've been going to Arizona a lot the last couple of years and my brother and I finally got it together to visit Frank Lloyd Wright's  Taliesin West.  Being in that amazing space in the Arizona desert, which I love, and seeing the physical manifestation of FLW's brain changed me somehow.  I also love the art of Nicole Eisenman, Jules de Ballencourt, Dennis Reynolds, Charles Burchfield, and Agnes Martin to name a few.  Also, good music, saguaro cacti, the Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Arizona, the writer Sherman Alexie (who I consider a national treasure--and thanks to former Monday blogger, Marnie Campbell, for turning me onto his blog), Oprah, Neil Young, and liberal radio talk show host Randi Rhodes.    Shelley in some of her favorite legwear. 4.  What's your favorite legwear? Pants:  both wide legged and skinny.