Art & Life with Shanon Rifenbery

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shanon Rifenbery.

Shanon, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I’ve always loved creating all types of art. One of my favorite memories from childhood was coloring with all the colors in the crayon box. My love of art continued throughout high school and college, but what I really wanted to pursue as a career was Interior Design. Fast forward to working as an Interior Designer for 5 years and I realized my favorite part of the design process wasn’t actually designing (which I do love) but drawing a beautiful picture of what the space was to look like and present it to the client. Design school taught me how to do these renderings (designer speak for the visual representation of your design, ya know- artwork) in marker and I later figured out how to make this marker art look like watercolor. And that, my friends, is how my artistic style was born.​

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
My artwork centers around home portraits, pet portraits, and bouquet portraits. All the art is custom and based on photos clients send me to recreate in an illustration. I create them with architectural markers and pens and I love how this approach lets me be both creative and exact- to have freedom but also precision. One of the main reasons I love doing this is the reactions of happy clients when they see their artwork. My heart overflows when I hear how much someone will cherish their artwork!

What would you recommend to an artist new to the city, or to art, in terms of meeting and connecting with other artists and creatives?
I’ve found some amazing artist connections on Instagram, and we all love to encourage and support one another. Finding other artists who do what you do is a great place to start, and I usually just shoot them a message to introduce myself! I’m also a member of Rising Tide Society, which is a global community for creatives in search of resources and connection. They even have local meet-ups each month and it’s been great to have face to face interactions with people in the art world and other creative industries like photography and blogging. You can get connected in your own city by going to their website: www.honeybook.com/risingtide.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
I am most active on Instagram (@srdesignstudioart) and anyone interested in ordering can do so through Etsy (www.etsy.com/shop/SRDesignStudioArt). I also have a lot of my past artwork portfolio on my website (www.srdesignstudioaz.com). 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.srdesignstudioaz.com
• Email: srdesignstudioaz@gmail.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/srdesignstudioart
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/srdesignstudioart

Image Credit:
Shanon Rifenbery

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