About Shawna Morris

I work in layers of paint, texture, and memory. My practice begins with feeling and unfolds through an intuitive process of building, revealing, and transformation.

My work is an ongoing exploration of intuition, emotion, and layered expression through paint, collage, and charcoal.

Artist Story

I began exploring my creativity as a visual artist in 2010 while living in Boulder, Colorado. Although I had been a singer and performer since the age of five—and had long expressed myself through music—something in me was beginning to reach beyond sound.

In Boulder, I started painting more intentionally. I created a local artist meetup group, hosted weekly sessions, and facilitated creative exercises. I was deeply inspired, but also often frustrated—I could feel a strong creative force within me, but I didn’t yet know how to fully access or express it through visual work.

Even as I continued writing and performing original music, I began to sense that it was no longer enough. Something deeper was asking to come through.

That shift fully revealed itself in 2017 while living in Costa Rica, where I experienced a clear turning point into painting. After discovering the work of intuitive painter Flora Bowley and hearing her speak about process, something clicked. I began painting immediately.

What followed was an outpouring of over 30 works in a series I titled Self-Portrait of the Soul. It felt less like I was creating and more like the work was moving through me—intuitive, unfiltered, and honest.

Since then, my work has continued to evolve into a range of moods and expressions. I work with acrylic, collage, and charcoal in a fast, intuitive process, allowing each piece to build layers of history over time. Completion is guided by a felt sense rather than a fixed formula.

At the core of my practice is authenticity of expression and joy. I move through the world guided more by feeling than by fact, and that emotional awareness shapes everything I create.

My Creative Process

Intuitive Beginning

Each piece begins without a fixed plan. I start from a feeling - responding to color, gesture, and emotion in the moment. This opening stage is fast, instinctive, and deeply present.

Layer Building

I build through layers of acrylic paint, collage papers, and charcoal. Forms shift, disappear, and reemerge as the work develops its own history over time.

Completion

I don't decide a piece is finished by formula. I step back and listen for a sense of resolution - an internal knowing that the work has arrived where it needs to be.

A Personal Note

My work is guided by an internal landscape – one that is emotional, intuitive, and deeply felt. I create to stay connected to that space, and to offer something honest in return. I hope the work invites others to slow down, feel, and connect with what lives beneath the surface.