Shelby is a multi-media visual artist living and working in Santa Barbara, CA. Her current focuses include large-scale found object sculptural art, and paintings & dimensional works that incorporate collage and smaller found objects.
After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Art from Washington University in St. Louis with a major in Fashion Design, Shelby moved to New York City where she assisted the legendary designer Zaldy. She worked on a small team as they made custom tour costumes for Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears and more. Through this she discovered her love of styling, at which point she moved to LA to work as a celebrity stylist. From 2012 until she became a mom in 2017, she served as pop star Kesha's sole stylist, dressing her for everything from music videos and performances, to red carpets and media appearances. During this time, she also worked with other artists and editorial publications, in addition to having a blog on all things style for which she created fashion illustration collages to artfully depict the trends she was highlighting, some of which were featured in Darling Magazine.
Shelby then had the privilege of being a full-time, stay-at-home mother to her two children from 2017 through late 2022, when her youngest started preschool. During this time however, she never lost her drive and desire to create, developing and launching a range of earth-friendly, plant dyed accessories in 2018. She enjoyed the opportunity to work on 360 degrees of a collection, from educating herself on plant dyes and hand dying all materials, to fabric and trim selection, to product design and collaborating with fabricators, to photoshoots, website design and copywriting, to customer interfacing and brand development.
Next came a return to fine art, with a gallery show in spring 2024 at Helena Mason Gallery in Santa Barbara featuring her found object wall hangings, mobiles, and sculptures. In 2025, she transformed the back room of Art & Soul Gallery into a synthetic sky featuring collected white and transparent life remnants dripping with countless plastic raindrops, and a driftwood and plastic waste bench from which to observe them. These shows continue in her earth-conscious ethos, composed entirely of items she has collected from beaches, trails, city streets, and domestic life, at once removing trash from our planet, and reframing them as beauty and moments in time.
Her latest show featured Shelby’s design as one of ten pieces selected as proposals for public art in Santa Barbara. The sculpture is visually indicative of her aesthetic- colorful, whimsical, and full of joy- as well as her focus- community, creativity, possibility. She dreams of getting the project funded and beginning a dynamic creative dialogue with the local community!
In the same vein, she has been working on paintings and dimensional shapes that use a variety of collaged elements, including traditional magazine tear outs, as well as personal photos, her children's drawings, and collected receipts, tickets, or mementos, paired with smaller colorful found objects, fabric and rope scraps, or household waste, like packaging and broken toys.
Despite the wide range of mediums, formats, and scale, Shelby's art remains consistent in her sense of color and aesthetic, as well as in her approach and concept. Be it items of clothing, small fashion cut outs, large discarded plastic, or family photos, she compiles her materials to create an overall image that is at once organic and methodical. To Shelby, the unexpected combination of a wide range of small items is reflective of life itself: how we travel through the world collecting experiences, relationships, dialogues, lessons, struggles and joys, never knowing how they will add up. But together they become, inevitably, something beautiful, fascinating, complex and unique.
SAY HELLO
shelby.scudder@gmail.com