Teresa Shannon
• earthenware •
This work is inspired by the life of snowshoe hares in the boreal forest but also by stories featuring anthropomorphized animals, like Richard Adams’ Watership Down. In his description of rabbit behavior, Adams was inspired by the naturalist Ronald Lockey’s The Private Live of the Rabbit (1964) but he imagined a richer inner life for them. On a trip to Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest in June 2021, boreal forest ecologist Roger Ruess talked about snowshoe hares browsing on white spruce and how that could affect the shape of the forest itself. Hare browse on younger seedlings exposed above the winter snowpack, slowing the growth of those trees. This short conversation sparked the idea of a story where the snowshoe hare has agency and perhaps pride in their work in the boreal forest.
Justin Olnes, Knut Kielland, Glenn P. Juday, Daniel H. Mann, Hélène Genet, Roger W. Ruess “Can snowshoe hares control treeline expansions?” Ecology: Ecological Society of America; Volume98, Issue10, October 2017, Pages 2506-2512 https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.1968
Richard Adams, 1994. Watership Down, introduction. Avon Books. (original publication 1972.
TERESA SHANNON
Teresa Shannon was born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska. She attended the University of Alaska, Fairbanks where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1998. In 2005 she completed a Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics from Wichita State University in Kansas. After finishing graduate school she returned to Fairbanks where she teaches ceramics part time at UAF. She makes pots and ceramic sculptures inspired by woodland creatures and dinosaurs in her home studio in Fairbanks. Her work is nostalgic and lighthearted; commemorating quiet moments at home and in nature. Teresa’s work has been exhibited across Alaska around the country. She recently completed a one year Visiting Assistant Professor position at Nicholls State University in Louisiana where she saw many connections between the rural life of coastal Louisiana and the rural life of interior Alaska.
Website: tsceramics.com
