Today we’d like to introduce you to Shayna Leib.
Hi Shayna, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up drawing like most artists and switched to clay when I was old enough to have access to a clay class, but it wasn’t until I saw glassblowing as a child that something really clicked inside me. I was obsessed with glass figurines so much as a child that my parents would dread when a crystal or glass shop was in the periphery of their vision because they knew they’d lose me to it. They took me to see glassblowing at a young age at Cal Poly in SLO, and that was all it took. I think they underestimated that experience and how it changed the trajectory of my life.
I went to Cal Poly for glass, though they didn’t have an art major at that time. It was only graphic design and photography. I really loved philosophy and literature, so those became my focus of study, with glass on the side. I graduated with a degree in Contemporary European Philosophy and minors in literature, art, and music.
At first, I was going to pursue my PhD in philosophy, but I rerouted to applying for grad school in glass. It was a huge risk because I didn’t technically have an art degree, but the program I applied to needed a grad student in glass at that time to fill a position of repairing the equipment and co-teaching so I got in without a degree, on a full assistantship. I graduated with my MFA in glass and metal in 2003 from UW-Madison.
From there, I worked a few jobs, moved around the country a little, taught at Cal Poly, and then back at the UW before going solo and freelancing. It started slow, but I was able to make a living at glass, and I built a name for myself in the industry. I branched out quite a bit into other series of work, diverging a little from the one which people knew me for, called the “Wind & Water” series. I created a series which explores the dessert culture of France and the US in glass and ceramic called the “Patisserie Series” as well as a painting series (“Malcontent Series”) and a children’s book (“Finding Figgins”).
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It’s been anything but smooth. I struggled a lot with galleries thru the years. I had galleries that didn’t pay when something sold and galleries that played power games. The paradigm they set forth of a 50/50 split is also very hard to work with. In glass, the overhead is so high, and the dangers are a substantial factor, so over the years, many conflicts arose from my belief that fundamentally that breakdown is unethical. I slowly began to do business with just one good gallery in particular who I have an excellent relationship with and focus the rest of my energy on marketing and going solo.
The cycle of selling sculpture, followed by being driven by the gallery to produce more and more of the same sculpture was something which also began to feel disingenuine halfway through my career. I thrive off of new ideas, and although I’ve seen some really successful careers of peers that have not changed much in their work, it was unsustainable for me to keep doing the same thing. During times of stability, I would create completely different work- so different that it was unrecognizable as mine. While that gave me creative energy and freedom, it came with some new challenges.
With the “Patisserie Series,” I was trying to break free of the paradigm of selling in galleries and move towards exhibitions in museums so that more of the public could enjoy the series. However, because the Patisserie series was so visually different than anything I’d created, it was sort of starting from scratch in terms of marketing. People don’t often want an artist to change. I noticed that if I showed something new on social media, I lost followers every time, which is weird to me as someone who loves to see an artist veer in another direction. I like seeing other things a creative mind can come up with. I wasn’t big on Instagram since I came to it about 10 years late and well after it peaked, so that didn’t bother me as much as it would have others, but it was still an interesting phenomena.
Similar difficulties have happened with my painting series, “The Malcontent,” which I started around 2021. It’s a pop-art series which explores the juxtaposition between a word, it’s meaning, and surrounding environment, which reflected the collective human sentiment during the pandemic. It’s a series of 6 photo-realistic large-scale paintings of words that are spelled out in candy or confections.
I had been rebelling against the Art and Craft divide for most of my career, as are most glass artists who create sculpture. Glass automatically falls into craft, despite if one is a sculptor and the demographic of people who collect it are a small microcosm compared to the High Art world. The worlds do not mix, and that was never more apparent than when I switched mediums. To switch from the “Wind & Water Series” to the “Patisserie Series” was a huge jump, but to then make a switch to concept-driven pop art paintings landed me in an area where I had to start from square one.
I changed my demographic audience one final time when I wrote and illustrated my children’s book Finding Figgins. It’s more of an art book for children, which makes it an unusual black sheep in the world of cartoon-illustrated literature. It took 3 years to illustrate as the illustrations are very detailed. And because I self-published, similar challenges were waiting as I once again slid back to the beginning and tried to make a name for myself in an unknown area. I’m still trying to navigate these difficult switches from an economic and marketing vantage point.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am most known for my sculpture series in glass called the “Wind & Water” series, which explores landscapes shaped by the forces of wind and water. Through the years, I branched off into subseries, which also explored coral reefs, hydrokinetics, blizzard winds, and underwater species studies. There are over 170 sculptures and installations in the series.
During the last several years, I began another series called the “Patisserie Series,” which became well known. I suffer from very extreme food allergies (over 100 foods), so I began to find therapy in creating desserts because it helped me look at food as form rather than as something I couldn’t eat. That is also reflected in the “Malcontent Series” of paintings which involve candy.
By far, the thing I am most proud of is writing and illustrating a book for children. I wanted to create work for a demographic that was fun and imaginative, and finally make something accessible to all. I was kind of disappointed that the art of illustration had changed so much in recent years and is now being done on computers or in a very cartoonish way. I set out to create a book which went back to the days where children’s books were illustrated beautifully with time, care, and attention to detail. Each illustration took me a month to render in colored pencil with the book taking a total of 3 years to illustrate. I’m very proud of the story, which is heartwarming, and the unusual visual easter eggs I threw in for adults, which include references to Magritte, T.S. Eliot, and classic cars.
What sets you apart from others?
An extremely laborious artistic style, an ability to work in almost any medium, and different bodies of work which have no visual connection to each other.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
You’ll be in a lot of pain if you try to be someone you’re not.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.shaynaleib.com www.findingfiggins.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shayna_leib/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Shayna-Leib-Glass-Art-SNL-Design-Works/100057157672105/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@shaynaleib
Image Credits
Eric Tadsen
Shayna Leib
