I am a 26 year old woman from upstate New York. Yes, there is more to New
York state than New York City. There are a lot of farms in the area where I
live, a lot of woods and a lot of sports-minded people. Here we have the
Soccer Hall of Fame, which draws in thousands of people each summer and, a
few towns over, it the Baseball Hall of Fame, which draws in an ever larger
amount of tourists. When school is in session and all the tourists are gone,
our two colleges fill our small town with students. You'd think that with
all the people constantly coming in and out of the area, there would be a
huge art scene...wrong!

Well, don't get me wrong, we have a healthy number of galleries here, but on
the other hand, the type of artwork these places accept is very limited.
Paintings and photographs of animals, landscapes, plants, flowers, and
sports-themed scenes are commonplace. There is the occasional abstract,
piece of modern art, or digital print, but if you're not a well-known or
prize-winning artist, you're pretty much screwed if you want to show artwork
of a different kind in one of our galleries (well, that is if you're not a
high school or college student!)

These would be the reasons why I started my website, StillHaunts.com. I
wanted a place to display all of my artwork with no restrictions at all. I
started it about a year and a half ago with the help of an online friend,
who owns and runs a few websites (HIMUS.com, FinnishMuses.com,
JennRawks.com). I have two separate galleries with sub-divisions for subject
matter/materials used. One gallery is for all of my artwork, which includes
my drawings, paintings, tattoo designs, and digital works (which I'm still
relatively new to). The other gallery is for all of my photography, most of
which is taken with a 35mm Canon Rebel EOS GII.

A lot of things inspire my artwork. Music and tattoo art are my biggest
muses. I have a lot of favorite bands and musicians, most of which are in
the rock genre, but I also listen to New Age, classical, opera, folk, and
Motown music. The biggest musical inspirations for me in the past couple of
years have been HIM and My Chemical Romance, which can be seen in some of my
artwork. I have actually drawn portraits of the front men of both bands,
something that I have never really done in the past. That is how much their
music has impacted my life.

Some of my artwork is inspired by my spiritual beliefs. I am in eclectic
pagan and have been for over 12 years now. This would be the reason I draw a
lot of goddess-type figures and faeries and such. I am also highly
interested in ancient civilizations. I actually went to college for a couple
of years for anthropology. Sometimes this can be seen in may artwork, be it
Greek, Egyptian, Indian, or other ancient cultures. I like to try to pis a
little meaning in each piece of artwork I do, and this usually means trying
to connect something ancient with something modern.

My favorite subject to draw and paint is women. Women with wings, women with
tattoos, women from myths, nude women, clothed women...I love men, but there
is something incredibly beautiful and magical about a woman's body. Maybe
it's the curve of the hip and the breast, or the sensuous pout of the lip or
line of the eye. I just can't stop myself from drawing and painting them! I
was raised to appreciate classical art, and exposed to a lot of nude
paintings of women, so this could be a factor as well.

All things said and done, I am an artist. I create for the love of creating.
I live and breathe art. It's what I am, and in every piece I make, there is
a little piece of me in it. There is nothing in the world that could stop me
from being an artist.

Cool stuff! You can check out more of Shelly's artwork at these sites...