Shelley Vanderbyl

Visual Artist

Shelley Vanderbyl is a conceptual artist whose work provides an immersive therapeutic experience within public galleries, clinics and homes, and is meant to create a beautiful, thoughtful space for the viewer to process difficult circumstances more easily. She has attended three international residencies and her work has been featured in over 18 publications around the globe. Particularly interested in aiding people with post traumatic stress disorder, Shelley asks the question, “If what someone has seen can break a person, can an image be a part of their healing?”

I am layering materials and working with chance, building up surfaces that feel organic, like nature. After the plaster dries, I stare at the shapes that appear; there are more images to see than I could have anticipated. I look at them with others, and it's like we're staring at the bark of a tree, a cracked river bed, or mottled sky. Whereas a pocket painting provides a private, absorbing experience, the fresco makes a space for sitting quietly together in contemplative stillness.