Shelby Marzoni

Much of my body of work has leaned toward dramatic depictions of beautiful places and novel expressions of human (usually celebrity) faces. In the last three years, however, reality is just not enough for me. I have begun journeying down the lonesome valley, sometimes dark, other times dappled with filtered sunlight, of magical realism driven by overarching narrative.

 

If your “bollocks” detector is pinging in the red zone, before you move on, let me explain. During the height of the pandemic, I imagined three prescient heroes who foresaw the impending doom of the pandemic, political horrendiomas, and world-wide mental health breakdown. The Cat Apocalypse series is a narrative cycle of seven paintings that tell the tale of our intrepid cats foreseeing impending doom, living through CATastrophe, and mending the world as we know it. The first two paintings on my page, “Lazy River” and “Rewiring” are the “before” and “after” views of the apocalypse.

 

The second two paintings represent the beginning of my current “What If?” series. First, I’m asking the question, “How do various groups of humans respond to anything/anyone that is “other?” Secondly, it introduces a young extraterrestrial, Xhaaad, who is coming of age in his society’s traditional journey to other lands to befriend the native beings and play with them, in whatever medium that involves. I’m enjoying seeing where young Xhaaad’s story will lead me. Stay tuned!