In 2023 Walters solo exhibition, “The Hole Belly”, filled The Contemporary Dayton with large scale installations and video. The title alludes to his sculptural aesthetic — smooth and voluptuous, ending in an extreme point.
“It could be like you’re full of life, love, and abundance, and then the point (represents) stretching towards something,” he explained.
“It’s like curiosity in going to places you’ve never been before. There’s a vulnerability and a delicateness to that, in the point. It’s forging and stabbing towards this unknown thing.”
Walters tends to prepare for an installation whether or not he has one lined up, by foraging natural materials in the woods. He set aside three years to prepare his show at The Co, camping nearly every weekend to source materials. He has accumulated an “abundance” of lumber. After the 2016 tornadoes took out a large swath of trees in Sinclair Park, a miller offered him 400 feet of logs.
“He said, you don’t have to worry about wood for a while.”
Walters, 50, lives in Dayton’s Newcom Plain neighborhood, where he has bought and renovated houses over the years. His son Zade, 25, an artist and musician, was in local bands The Zygotes and Manray before moving to Portland, Ore.
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
When asked if he comes from an artistic upbringing, Walters said, “I am the fuchsia sheep of the family.”
His life of art was shaped by pivotal events that directed him towards wood.
His earliest epiphany came from an old dresser his mother was given while pregnant. It was the only object in a friend’s house that survived the 1974 Xenia tornado. Painted black, Walters stripped the wood when he was in eighth grade, revealing the natural grain.
“I remember having this angels singing moment of how beautiful that looked. That was my first connection with wood. Somewhere around that time was when I figured out my purpose, which is to make art.”
In ninth grade, at Fairborn High School, he got all of his required classes out of the way so he could take mostly art his senior year.
“I was so ecstatic about going to school. I always went in early to the ceramics room.”
After graduating advertising art school and feeling discouraged by the emergence of computers in the design world, Walters moved to rural Athens, Ohio. He painted, sang in the band Delirium, and lived in a cabin on a ridge.
Around this time, he created his first piece of furniture — a coffee table made of sticks and branches. This led to his first furniture commission and a series of kismet moments.
“On the way into town was this weird building with no signage or windows that I drove by all the time. There was a huge pile of cut-offs from logs outside.”
A man named Thomas Bennett was presiding over the property, and gave Walters some of the wood, inviting him to stop by any time. One day Walters was driving past with a handmade table in his truck. He pulled over to show Bennett, who invited him into the mystery building. It was a full woodshop, and Bennett was a furniture and cabinet maker.
“At the time I was making all these tables with a hand saw. He said, I really like knowing my neighbors, and I don’t want you going anywhere — if I give you a part-time job, will that be enough to keep you around?”
Walters began working for Bennett full-time. He was given a key to the shop and free rein over the tools and wood. He would go in at 5 a.m. to work on his own commissions, work his job from 9 until 5:30, then go home to paint and draw.
After returning to Dayton, Walters continued taking on commissions and playing music in performance art band, Sleepybird. He was hired to build a gallery wall at Stivers School for the Arts which became 20 years working in the sculpture and ceramics departments.
“I enjoyed being part of that school because the talent that comes through there is just amazing. I’ve always been part of something bigger than me, in the shadows. I like it not being about me but contributing to a bigger whole.”
“I usually rise between 4 and 5. I have a privacy fence and lots of trees. I like to go out on my back porch, nude, and do some movement stuff. It’s a way to wake up. I eat really quick and get right out. There were a couple years when I wore my boots to bed so that when I got up, I could not have anything between me and getting to the studio. I used to be upset if I wasn’t at the studio by 5 a.m. Six is usually the latest I get in.”
“I love animals, but I’ve never believed in owning an animal. I value my independence. If I created a house of cards, and I went away on vacation, I’d want to come back with that house of cards still standing.”
Walters remodeled his house, and a month later it was struck by lightning. He rebuilt the whole interior and changed the exterior to a modern design. He built a barn in back for his lumber and then proceeded to buy surrounding houses.
“My street was really bad when I first moved there. I started doing these houses. I get a house about every five years. I love architecture. I like the idea of creating a unique space for good people who don’t really make a lot of money.
“I had aspirations of doing an artist community. We joked around about owning the whole block and having one big privacy fence. Through people getting old and moving and dying, the family kind of shrunk.”
Walters rides his motorcycle to the studio year-round.
“I work until 11 and then I have lunch between 11 and 12. Sometimes I’ll go eat with friends. I get teased because I eat so early, but that’s when you get the best service. I usually go home. I’m very structured, so five minutes can really throw me off.
Credit: Hannah Kasper
Credit: Hannah Kasper
“I try to do some sort of physical something for an hour. I’ve always felt that was a practice to enhance my (art) practice. It helps with the weight that I have to lift and move around.
“I make a huge pot of vegetable soup every month and freeze it. I like to make Indian dishes. I’m really into baking cauliflower with tahini and cilantro.
“I read for about an hour. Right now, I’m reading ‘Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas’ by Tom Robbins, who just died.’
“In the evenings I’m drawing or sketching, working on small models, or writing proposals and grants. I love being at my house and watching movies, but I feel unproductive. So, I started making little pieces that I can prep without equipment, hand sanding, while I sit there and watch. Anything Wes Anderson, Coen brothers. I really like art films where everything is thought about, the composition and framing, the colors.
“I used to never sleep, a couple hours. Now if I get a deep six, I’m good. I understand the health benefits, but when I was younger there was so much life that I was missing. If I grant myself a large window, there might be only a small part I’m sleeping. That seems very wasteful to me.”
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
Walters is extremely disciplined and works without distraction.
“I would like my work to touch more people. If I throw myself into this fully — throw myself into the volcano — it’s going to make the volcano erupt. I took off seven months in 2018 and did a big installation at Stivers. It was an amazing show. I wanted to create a feeling of being in the woods. A lot of kids who go there might barely get to walk on grass, they’re inner-city kids. Stivers is their sanctuary.
“I made a firewood wall that completely blocked out the windows. I covered the whole floor in live sod. I did 25 shadow boxes with book lights shining into them, three large sculptures in the center. Everything was dark, you could hardly see the room except for the work. I recorded bird and cricket sounds and played it on a loop. The sod and firewood had that smell of being in the woods.
“At the opening there was a big line, and I only let four people in at a time. I made people take their shoes and socks off and experience that feel of grass. I also asked them not to talk. To me, being in the woods alone is divine.”
At the closing event, there were a couple teenagers hanging around, not there for the show.
“They were really rough, cussing. They kept passing by the food and finally asked if they could have some. I said, well, I’ll make a deal with you. I’ve got an art show going on in there. If you go in and see the show, I’ll let you have some food. Here’s the deal — you’ve gotta take your shoes and socks off, go in, try not to talk to each other while you’re in there. Just go in there and look at it.
“I let them go in by themselves. It was getting to be 10 minutes, so I went in, and there were big smiles on their faces. They had a whole different rapport. They were like, ‘Are you a magician or something?’ They were so enamored by what they experienced. That was a huge thing for me, to change their state of mind.
That’s where I’m going now, more (immersive) pieces.”
MORE DETAILS
Find out more about Shon Walters and Eccentric Wood on Instagram at instagram.com/eccentricwood/?hl=en and at facebook.com/eccentricwood.
Walters’ public installation of 13 large-scale wood flowers can be seen at the New Lebanon Branch of the Dayton Metro Library, for which he says he logged in over 1600 hours of work. He recommends asking the desk for binoculars to see the detail.
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