clicking a last sacred letter of love
by Shelby Silver
Shelby Silver, Behavioral Imprints, handmade paper, acrylic, plastic marine debris, and thread, 2022. Courtesy of the artist.
clicking a last
sacred letter of love
Shelby Silver | July 2024 | Issue 35
I am an Ecological Artist, and Educator born in the Northwest near the Pacific Ocean. From an early age, I felt called to help safeguard our seas, and those who rely on them. As ecology focuses on the interconnected relationships between life forms and their surroundings, so too does my work.
My practice of utilizing salvaged plastic marine debris through artistic application explores the intimate interactions between humanity, the earth, and our oceans, and moreover how these relationships evolve over time and influence one another.
I am a working artist, and teach intergenerational creative conservation through art, a Gerontology Professional, Certified Professional Activity Director, Conscious Dying Coach and End of Life Doula. I believe in whole person care, compassion, creativity, community, and conservation.
When we support one another in kindness, the world becomes a happier and healthier place for us all.
A Prayerful Acknowledgement of a Life Lived
The life in me honors the life once held in you, the death in me, which will one day be mine , recognizes the death in you. May the vast ocean be with you, you are a vast ocean.
In January of 2023, a beautiful, forty-foot deceased juvenile male sperm whale was brought to shore by the tides in Fort Stevens in Oregon. We learned that it had been struck by the propeller of a large vessel. It is the sperm whale that makes the loudest sounds on earth, and they communicate with one another across thousands of miles of ocean by utilizing language only they are capable of deciphering, though we hold a captivated fascination with its profound sophistication and are consistently trying to decode this ancient language, it is a fast-paced series of clicks.
May your brief presence restore curiosity in the minds of those who spend time near your noted return to the waters that will soon rain down upon us the essence of you be it mountain, beach, or sea. Thunder cracking over storm-washed and weathered skins, clicking, clicking, clicking a last sacred letter of love, wisdom, and reality.
Shelby Silver is a multidisciplinary ecological artist, intergenerational educator, public speaker, and singer-songwriter.
Her work is focused on oceanic conservation through the collection of plastic marine debris from our seas and local beaches. Shelby was born in Grays Harbor Washington near the Pacific Ocean and grew up on a llama ranch, upon the traditional homelands of the Quinault Indian Nation, where her work as a young fiber artist served to influence and inform her current process. As a child, Shelby’s favorite natural outdoor space was the beach where she observed the ocean’s ability to heal, provide nourishment, and ultimately bring people together. As a result, her early childhood experiences nurtured her stewardship values, and along with them her passion to preserve and protect our oceans.
Today Shelby’s work explores the intertwining relationships between humankind and nature, and the overall role they play in service of one another. From her paintings, paper making, illustrations, reclaimed marine rope basket sculptures, tapestries, large scale installations, art classes, and more, Shelby demonstrates these connections by pulling salvaged plastic marine debris materials into her practice. Her most recent body of work includes paper that she has made with twenty years of personally collected ephemera including her own writing, and then pressing the plastic marine debris into the pulp. This collection titled Palpable Pulp & Lasting Impressions intimately examines impermanence and the starkly contrasted longevity of plastic marine debris across the life course perspective, and within the human condition during the Anthropocene.
Shelby now resides in rural Western Oregon on The Healing Land & Water Way Project founded by her partner and herself and upon the sacred indigenous territory of the Kalapuya people. This is where Shelby calls home. She lives in a small cottage with her partner and their cat, and it is there she works from her attached studio. Shelby still spins llama, alpaca, and sheep’s wool on the Ashford spinning wheel she’s had for twenty-seven years and weaves the yarn into her tapestries as a means of paying homage to her upbringing.
Shelby is a certified scuba diver, holds two degrees from Portland Community College, one in the Applied Science of Gerontology with specialized training and focus in whole person care, and another in General Studies with focus in psychology. She is a certified professional activity director, is currently pursuing a Bachelors of Science in social sciences at Portland State University, and has become a certified End of Life Doula through The Conscious Dying Institute in efforts of providing deeper support to our collective community. Shelby is inspired by the powerful, and transformative healing capacity of art and is working towards a Masters as a licensed Art Therapist. She has taught with and through the Bay Islands International School in Roatan Honduras, Cannon Beach Art Association, Unity Spiritual Center, Portland Community College, Northwind Art, Port Townsend Marine Science Center, her own business Salt of Earth & Sea Studio LLC., and in many more contexts.