Shambè Jones

Shambé Jones

Jackson, MS

Wood

Pyrography

Guild member since 2009

Shambé Jones was born in the Midwest region. Champaign-Urbana, Illinois where he started his creative journey at age 5, growing up in a family full of artists, musicians, seamstresses, carpenters, photographers, and farmers. There were also family friends that influenced his growth as an artist. He has always been inspired by music and nature, and uses both of these muses to guide his process of creating. Visual art was the way in which he expressed not only how he interpreted the world, but it allowed him to vision the would the way he wanted to see it.

By the time Shambé reached high school, he began entering illustration contest, with visual arts being how he spent most of his time. Working to perfect his skills and find which platform would be is focus, he attended Jackson State University (JSU,) earning a B.A. in Fine Arts.

During his matriculation, he participated in the JSU Study Abroad program in Côte d'Ivoire, Africa, spending the summer studying various forms of craft work such as sculpting, ceramics, brass casting, and batik dying, among others. By way of Drew University, this experience tremendously influenced Shambé's creativity and kinship with pyrography. He taught himself this art for in 2000, after being drawn to the handcraft skills he learned from the people of Côte d'Ivoire and natural elements (wood) that could be turned into art while being easily accessible. While pyrography is the visual form that he feels most drawn to, he continues to further his skill in painting, sculpture, ceramics and mixed media.

His process of creating work depends on the medium his is using. With pyrography, he like to study the wood pattern to understand it in its natural state before he begins, often letting the natural grain of the wood help him creative certain pieces. Shambé also visualizes stories, based on historical events, a moment, or a though that he wants to tells through the wood. The shape of the wood also helps hime decide what to create. Finally, he likes to create an atmosphere where music guides the process of his vision and the wood communicate with each other. When adding color, he used colored wood stains so that the grain of the wood is still visible and not obscured. When he's creating other pieces that's not made with wood, he chooses a topic or person that influenced culture, mostly in the United States. If it is an iconic musician, he listens to their work to engulf himself in the lyrics, melodies and rhythms while working on the piece. The mood of the music help him decide on the color palette. For example, if it's a jazz musician, if gives Shambé a calm, cool feeling which he would then interpret into using various shades of blue.