Shannon Anderson was born in 1972 in Tillamook, Oregon into a very large family.  She is the oldest of four siblings, two half-siblings, an aunt to six nieces and nephews, and a great aunt to one little boy.  Altogether there are seven dogs and two cats in her family.  Her Stepfather was the greatest bar pilot on the Columbia river, and her Mother was a longtime waitress at Castaway’s in Cannon Beach.  When she was young Shannon excelled in mathematics, penmanship, and home economics.  She firmly believes that Home Economics should be a required curriculum in schools.

By her own account, Shannon started practicing art because she couldn’t go to college.  She draws what she sees on television.  Much of her imagery is taken from her favorite shows, including Once Upon a Time, The Nanny, Knight Rider, the Bionic Woman, the Vampire Diaries, and many others.  In particular, she is drawn towards what she calls “humanity scenes”: scenes of love and marriage, birth and child rearing, and family life.  She likes to “capture the pictures in her heart” in order “to see what things look like in [her] imagination”.  Most days you can find her in her favorite chair, hard at work with tracing paper and colored pencils, however every once in a while she likes to have a day off to rest her arm.  About her practice, she says, “To tell you the truth, I like how I do it.”

In late summer 2024, working with a collective comprised of fellow Elbow Room artists Amy Osborn and Endale Abraham, Shannon co-curated a group show in our studio gallery entitled Once Upon A Jerry Looney Rainbow Miracle.