Wiki: Floyd Shaman - upcScavenger

Floyd Shaman (December 20, 1935 – August 8, 2005) was an American sculptor.

Born in Wheatland, Wyoming, Sculpting Outside the Lines Retrieved November 19, 2018. Shaman lived in several parts of the state in his early years and briefly in Seattle, Washington where his parents worked in the aircraft industry as part of the war effort. He graduated high school from University Prep in Laramie, Wyoming. Shaman excelled in basketball and won a three-sport scholarship to North Dakota State Normal and Industrial School in Ellendale, North Dakota. After attending college for several years, he enlisted in the United States Navy and became a dental technician, a vocation that would presage his later artistic career. Returning to Wyoming in 1960, Shaman studied sculpture as an undergraduate at the University of Wyoming where he trained under Robert Russin, one of Wyoming's most well-known artists. He earned a Bachelor's degree in art and went on to take a Master's degree in 1969, writing a thesis on the chemical patination of bronze. Shaman left Laramie and moved to Cleveland, Mississippi to teach art at Delta State University in 1970. He was hired to establish the sculpture division of the art departmentBlack, Patti Carr (1998), Art in Mississippi, 1720–1980, Univ. Press of Mississippi, p. 290, and he successfully implemented a bronze casting foundry as part of that project. Due to the difficulty of obtaining stone in Mississippi, Shaman began working in the more readily available medium of wood. A residency at YaddoObituary notice in Yaddo's newsletter. in 1976 resulted in one of his first major pieces, the Janus Road Show, a collection of three figures representing jazz musicians Shaman saw in New Orleans. Letter from the artist. He left academia after ten years at Delta State to devote himself full-time to sculpture. Shaman found success as an independent artist, regularly exhibiting work in galleries throughout the United States. One of his most beneficial gallery relationships was with the Elaine Benson Gallery in Bridgehampton, New York, which hosted an invitational charity art show to benefit a local animal rescue group. Shaman's own home and studio served as a local attraction, and starting in the mid-1990s his wife, Molly, ran a popular bed and breakfasthttp://www.southernliving.com/travel/south-east/bed-and-breakfast-blues-00400000007959/ Southern Living review of Molly's Bed and Breakfast that used his work as an appealing highlight of the inn. One of the South's most important figurative art artists in the last part of the 20th century, his works are included in major collections across the United States and internationally.

Technique and subject matter

Though he was trained as a stone carver,Black, Patti Carr (1998), Art in Mississippi, 1720–1980, Univ. Press of Mississippi, p. 290, Shaman's most significant work was in wood and involved the detailed process called lamination. Shaman is featured in the textbook The Sculpture Reference: Techniques, Terms, Tools, Materials, and Sculpture by Arthur Williams, where detailed photographs illustrate his technique and tools. He further refined the lamination process by developing a "hollow-core technique"Black, Patti Carr (1998), Art in Mississippi, 1720–1980, Univ. Press of Mississippi, p. 290, that resulted in strong, yet lighter pieces. Shaman often filled the empty cavities of his sculptures with objects known only to the artist, a humorous touch that often intrigued and frustrated his patrons. His typical sculpture depicts everyday encounters defined by wry humor, irony, and sober reflection.Black, Patti Carr (1998), Art in Mississippi, 1720–1980, Univ. Press of Mississippi, p. 290, Shaman'