The Member Spotlight series at Newburyport Art is a new initiative, featuring a solo showcase of work in the newly designated Mural Gallery — the hallway and staircase bridging the downstairs Sargent Gallery and upstairs Hartson Gallery. The current spotlight is on Shana Duncan, who presents Talitha Koum.
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Little Girl, I say to you, pick up your paint brush and speak
I came to art in late 2019, a grown woman carrying the wounds of a feisty, once silenced inner child who was determined to reclaim her voice, heal, and speak. Becoming aware that I needed more than just therapy, I gravitated through parenting my children, toward art. In the spirit of healing by any means necessary, I first picked up air dry clay while my daughter was sculpting and allowed myself in a way I hadn’t before to intuitively create. Next, I grabbed some color pencils and began to draw, which lead me to a canvas, paint brushes and some acrylic paint. Where words failed, art gave voice to once deeply hidden, grief, fear, pain and shame. I added music into the mix, moving my body to help release the trauma and something magical happened, I began to see beauty in what before I only saw as broken, I began to heal.
Then came the Covid-19 Pandemic and the world hunkered down as I was still battling intense symptoms of PTSD. I had before me a choice, to fall apart or to carry on and view the situation from a unique perspective. Perhaps I could see this season of forced solitude as a blessing, time to delve further inward on the journey to finding the authentic me. I committed to giving that hurt little girl all she needed to find her voice and expressed myself on the canvas throughout the pandemic each day. A combination of creativity, faith, and therapy birthed the paintings hanging here today. I am happy to say that together my inner child and I have decided that the artist we discovered along this path was who we were truly meant to be.
— Shana Duncan
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Shana lives in southern New Hampshire, although she will always consider Newburyport home. She is a mom to the two most amazing kiddos, a follower of Jesus, loves to cook and is a mystic at heart. She hopes to someday be an inspiration to others, especially children, showing them the power of using creativity and the arts, coupled with traditional modalities, to heal.
