Shan Jameson ‘19, a Media and Communications major and Art Studio minor, is busy inside and outside the classroom. She is a member of Alpha Chi Omega and was a Panhellenic delegate last year, is an officer in class council, and serves on the alumni board. When asked about her artistic style, Jameson replied, “My favorite medium is acrylic and then having objects in it, like cardboard, wire and reusable objects — mixed media.” Not surprisingly, she loved taking the course Painting II, which allowed her to be very creative.
Art has had a strong impact on Jameson’s life. “I have a learning disability,” she stated, “I have dyslexia. I’ve always struggled with English and math and the normal classes that everyone else breezes through. But I’d always have art class twice a week in elementary school, and that was my favorite class because I didn’t have to think critically about ‘What does this sentence mean?’ or ‘What does this math problem equal?’ Art allowed me to sort of escape the real world of English and math. Now art helps me to present what my brain is thinking.”
“Art allowed me to sort of escape the real world of english and math. Now art helps me to present what my brain is thinking.”
Jameson’s learning disability has impacted her CUE (Culminating Undergraduate Experience) thesis in a positive way. “If you know me, my brain is everywhere — we could be talking about something, and I will go off track and start talking about something that has nothing to do … [with] what we were originally talking about. I think with painting, and with art, I use it in my splatter paint and abstract artwork — that’s a representation of how my brain is. Art has allowed me to express myself and show people how my brain is inside,” she explained.
Jameson’s favorite artist when she was younger was Jackson Pollock. “But, now that I’ve gotten older and learned more about art and artists, I really like this one artist, Robert Rauschenberg. His work is abstract and he put objects in his work,” she said. Although Jameson has always done similar mixed media work, she confided that Rauschenberg has been an inspiration for her because of their shared challenge: “I guess I relate to him because he had dyslexia but was able to think outside the box when it came to his learning disability. I think that I’ve had to do that too, to think ‘What do I have to do to achieve this goal, how do I work around the learning issue?’” Jameson said that Rauschenberg has helped her define what she wants her thesis to be.
Even though she is not majoring in art, Jameson is currently taking the Art Studio CUE course, which is typically only open to majors. “It’s a two semester class,” Jameson explained. “The first semester, you work on your portfolio, do critiques within the class, and work on what your thesis is going to be. Next semester will be presenting your work in a gallery and learning about that process.” As Jameson had decided she was going to minor, not major, in art, she had to contact the department chair to see if she could take the course. She was told that she could apply to be in the CUE, so she sent in a digital portfolio and ended up getting into the class.
“Art has allowed me to express myself and show people how my brain is inside.”
Even when Jameson is not painting, she is creative. “I’m the intern for the Career Center; I work with their social media. I work with Adobe, Photoshop and Illustrator to make content for them,” Jameson said. “Creating flashy, artsy types of things on social media will catch people’s eye, and they’ll be more likely to look at it.” She elaborated upon this by saying, “I want to go into a creative field within the job industry, so knowing Photoshop is super helpful and great to have on my resumé. I thought about going into graphic design work or the marketing world and combining them somehow. My ultimate goal is to be a creative director, but that’s a long ways away.”
If you would like to check out more of Jameson’s work, she has created an Instagram solely dedicated to her art: @shanjamesonart.
