Shana Harper

Shana Harper (b. 1982) is a multidisciplinary artist who joined NIAD Art Center in 2005. Working with printmaking, textiles, and ceramics, she has created works inspired by nature and her loved ones. Harper has exhibited in galleries around the Bay Area, including the Fort Mason Festival Pavilion, Eddie Rhodes Gallery, the Oakland Museum of California, Mills College Art Museum, and ACCI Gallery. Her work was acquired for the permanent collection of the OMCA.  

I am a phenomenal artist who works primarily in printmaking, ceramics, textiles and drawing.

In my drawings I like to work with holes or gaps, especially in my nature scenes. Sometimes that’s me, sometimes I’m in a hole trying to get out of it and a lot of my art is about my feelings. When I work in the studio I like to stay in one spot so I can focus.

I like to draw variations of an image; a flower, a leaf. I like to repeat an image; that’s why stencils and printmaking interest me. I like to work an image until it’s perfected. I also like to challenge myself. Learning printmaking was a challenge over the last decade.

In my ceramics I have made several pie sculptures since food is about memory to me. I made an apple pie sculpture to remember a loved one who has passed away. Working with clay I like the feel of it, I like smoothing it out, I like perfecting it.

I want my art to expand into the world. I want to make useful things like napkins and pots. Things that people use and wear everyday. I want you to know that being an artist is the best feeling in the world.