Finding Your Daily Practice

On this episode we interview artist and associate professor Kelly Sheppard Murray. We talk about trusting your creative curiosity, pursuing an art education, coming back after a creative burnout, and the power of committing to a daily practice.

Kelly Sheppard Murray | Raleigh, NC

Artist and Associate Professor

Artist Bio:

Kelly Sheppard Murray lives, teaches college-level art, and maintains her studio in Raleigh, North Carolina. Charlotte Russell Contemporary, VAE, Artspace, Durham Art Guild’s Truist Gallery; and Wilma Daniels Gallery, Wilmington, NC have exhibited large groupings of Murray’s biomorphic encaustic sculptures. Commissions and recent corporate placement include Allspring offices in Charlotte & London; UNC Hospital, Holly Springs, Pinnacle Bank Nashville & Memphis; and Design Dimensions, Zebulon.

Artist Statement:

Kelly Sheppard Murray’s multimedia sculptural work fashions a wide range of polymorphic, multicolored structures that have their roots in natural forms. She draws from the shapes of plants, moss, lichen, fungi, shells, and geological forms. Collecting hundreds of sculptural elements, Murray slowly and deliberately assembles her pieces for installation—each one a unique building block within the visual language she articulates within her exhibitions. By developing her own malleable visual idiom, Murray expresses her curiosity and invites that of her audience. Further, through her careful and consistent day-to-day addition of sculptural elements, she reminds us how small steps can significantly impact our perceptions of the world and our environment.