Hello Im Shen Marie I am a self-taught portrait artist. My work is strongly influenced by my Black and Métis culture.

My first experiences as an artist was at the young age of 7 or so... I would find myself sketching and creating sculptures of my culture. I found that it was an outlet to allow myself to express and uplift me personally and others.

As I grew up into young teenage years I formed a passion to sketch leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko and many others.

It was here that I realized that I wanted to pursue my career in this field.
However... 

Life had a different turn for me.

These early years brought a lot of personal struggles and unfortunately I was not able to physically bring pencil to paper anymore, I was so lost and heart broken.

As years went by and I grew into a young woman. I took my artistic skills and applied them into graphic design and photography.I opened my own Photography Studio and ran my own business for many years. As much as I enjoyed it I knew it wasn't my true calling. Life brought another turn and geared me back to my true passion. 

Living in Mississauga Ontario, Canada at the time it hit me!

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I believe that being an artist is something that one is born to do and not learned at school, I went on to study through practical experience, learning through trial and error and self learning studying the works of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jacob Lawrence, Kehinde Wiley as my teachers.

It was here that I furthered expanded on my knowledge in Portrait painting, where I gained a great following in social media and now have many collectors.

I work primarily in Acrylics and I currently work from my home studio in Orangeville, Ontario. 

"My goal is to use art to inspire others"