Shona Rae
Shona has won numerous government grants, national and international awards, including the Award of Excellence from the Alberta Craft Council in 2015, the Alumni Award from ACAD, and the Steel Trophy Award from the Canadian Metal Arts Guild in 2016.
From 2004-2011, Shona ran an art jewellery gallery, INFLUX, in Calgary. Elements of story-telling and humour still characterize her work. Tiny characters populate her jewellery, such as the goddesses of prehistory and antiquity, or Alice in Wonderland creatures, reborn on rings and pendants. In her “Surreal Series”, especially, Rae plays with archetypal characters and gives voice to her dreams. The fragility of life is represented by delicate, jewelled skulls and skeletons.
Art-making also gives her a vehicle to express her concern with serious environmental issues. In this technology-driven society, she takes pleasure in using her hands to carve natural materials such as bone and antler.
Augmenting her visual art practice with her love of performance, she has professional training as a clown, and also appears as the lead singer and song-writer for “Shona Rae and The VooDoo Hand”, a Calgary “swampabilly” band.