General artist statement as it pertains to the last 20 years-

Two dimensional art has always held a certain fascination with me. It fascinates because there is often a yearning for it to be something more than it is. I feel a drawing wants to break free from it's boarders, or pass through it's frame and splash out onto the wall. There are times when looking at a photograph that I want to step into the scene, I want to look behind the objects in the foreground and see what's behind. I want a painting to be so amazing that objects are popping free from the canvas, occupying the space where I stand. It's this multi-layered intrigue I capture with my work. What started out for me as flat two-dimensional work has evolved into three-dimensional sculpture and has now re-evolved into a 3D that is different entirely.

My art has a starting point that often begins with using a camera much like a sketch book, quickly capturing ideas, gathering concepts for something larger. To me the photo is amazing in and of itself, as the camera captures, it flattens. The beauty in taking pictures is the ability to move in and around a subject, making spatial choices of what to leave in and what to take out. There are three dimensional choices in making an image that are removed from the finished print. I look to reinflate that flattened image so when viewing it, it has similar elements that can be similar to maneuvering through the scene, engaging the viewer with a sense of motion and perspective as if they were standing there making the picture themselves.

-Shawn Harris