Shoo Bear on Art and Life

I have been called Shoo Shoo Bear for as long as I can remember. My aunt started with Shoo Shoo, short for Shereen. As the story goes, a high school friend of my mother’s came to visit, and when she put me in his arms he said, “Oh, you’re becoming a bear aren't you?” So they started calling me ‘the bear’ and the two fused together and I have been Shoo Shoo Bear, in some form, since then.

The Bear with her admirers.

I have only ever wanted to be an artist, and have always had some sort of ongoing art practice, be it crafts, painting, drawing, film or (mostly) many things at a time. I grew up around artists and so was encouraged to nurture this instinct.

When I was a teenager, I remember feeling very sad at some point. I was writing a lot of poetry at the time, about my feelings. I remember telling my mother that I felt lonely. She (a writer) said, “You’re never alone. You always have your Art.” At the time it didn’t make much sense at all, but it makes perfect sense now, as I have spent the past years cultivating a practice to connect with myself as much as connecting with others.

A page from one of my Art Journals.

There is a point in life when things start to come back around, when you think of your past and combine it with your present and create a magical middle. Perhaps this is why this stage of life, this mid life, is full of wonder.

I hope you will join me, Shoo Bear, as we talk about Life and the role of Art in it. We’ll talk about drawing our feelings and spontaneous creation and being ourselves and making time to laugh.

As we head into the future of automated machines, lets let the robots do the outer work so that we can concentrate on enjoying the processes and the beautiful bits of life that remind us that we are human.