About Donna R. Shipman

My work is intended to convey that we do not have the right to manipulate the world we live in to fit the image of what we believe it should be. It is a world that we inhabit and a world that will continue on long after we have killed ourselves in our quest for selfish fulfillment and fantasy. My art is a reflection of these ego driven desires, and a message that the dark spiral of destruction has long since begun. For the love of a perfect green lawn or a strawberry in January we are willing to apply chemicals to our soil, food and ultimately our bodies. We cannot separate ourselves from what we do to our environment. I hope my art can express the fear that I have about the affect that human ignorance and greed is having on our present, and will have on our children’s future.  To this end I utilize several images of birds. In my work this is an effort to draw attention to the steep decline of bird populations due to human impact. These creatures are indicators for the present, as they have been for decades in coal mines. Our canaries are dying, but there is no escape from the cave.  We are the guardians of the future and yet a lacking has left us weak in step, and yet unable to fly.