Meet Shannon Henn | Artist & Gallery Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Shannon Henn and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Shannon, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Believe it or not, Colorado weather was one of the factors of opening my own business. When I decided to dedicate my time to my artwork, I needed an outlet to make money from my creations. I started out doing art fairs in and around Denver. As everyone in Colorado knows, weather turns on a dime here and wind gusts, flash rains, and cold spells are part of our everyday life. The unpredictability of outdoor art fairs was making my head spin. I ruined a few pieces transporting to and from shows, another due to a wind gust and another got soaked in a passing rain storm. I was getting immensely discouraged and decided I needed an indoor space to display my art.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
As I recently looked back at the sketchbooks from my childhood I was fascinated that my obsession with straight lines and faces started as early as 10. I never would have expected that my style and brand started that young. I was obsessed with the multicultural faces I would find in Benetton advertisements in magazines. I would sketch the models faces and dream of going to lands far far away to meet people of all races and places. As I grew older I was fortunate to live and work in countries all over the world including Kenya, Peru, Tanzania, Japan, Nepal, Germany, England and Mexico to name a few. The colors of textiles, architecture and jewelry in each country always fascinated me and taught me that color plays such an important role in my life. I love the bright hues of blankets in Mexico and the contrasting colors of the Masai tribes red attire against the green of the plains in Africa. I love the crazy lights in cities like Tokyo and New York and I can feel the calm of the gradient shades of cities like Dublin and San Francisco. Every palette I choose is meant to invoke and emotional energy especially when I am painting faces of musicians. The colors I choose are the colors I see when I close my eyes and allow the energy of that artist and their music take over my brain. The high energy of contrasting colors for someone like David Bowie, the darkness and mysteriousness of someone like Bob Dylan are emotions I can evoke with my palettes. I don’t just want you to recognize the faces or places I paint, I want you to feel them. For 10 years I was the director of an music-centric, international cancer foundation that put on concerts around the world in extreme locations like Everest Base Camp and Machu Picchu. When I returned to painting after nearly 20 years, it was the faces of the people I met, the musicians I traveled with and the colors of the places we visited that stuck in my head. It wasn’t until I moved to the ski town of Winter Park that I envisioned putting ski goggles on these faces. My “Apres’ Ski” series is now in homes, hotels and offices around the world. It’s been such a joy to dive into the music and history of each artist to allow their true colors to shine in each of my paintings.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Well, I am a dive bar fanatic so inevitably I would start there. I’d start with a drink somewhere along Colfax like the PS Lounge where you get a rose and a shot when you enter, the jukebox is packed with the classics and they know how to make a good manhattan. We would pubcycle (bar crawl on bikes) our way home popping into all the local haunts, have an ice cream at Scoops, a martini at The Thin Man, grab a slice at Atomic Cowboy, throw a dollar bill at the ceiling of The Owl and finish it off with some Irish music at The Abbey Tavern. The next day we would head to the mountains with a stop at Red Rocks of course. We would tour the underground tunnel that leads to the sound stage and revel in all of the musicians who have graced that stage and signed the walls. From there we would head west to Winter Park to scare the s#!t out of them on Berthoud Pass. We would camp in town at Idlewild campsite and ride bikes to Denos Mountain Bistro where everyone knows your name. We would see moose along the trails, shooting stars in the Milky Way at night and live music in the park on Thursday. We would lick our wounds the next morning at Wake n Bacon, have a mimosa at Gravity House and hit Grand Lake for an afternoon fishing on a boat and retire to our tents where the rain falls outside leaving rainbows in its wake. Pretty much my idea of heaven.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Growing up in Philadelphia, I was surrounded by art as it’s home to more public art than any other city in the United States. My mom is an interior designer and my dad had a passion and talent for fine art. I remember going to the Philadelphia Art Museum with him and being drawn in by the modern artists like Lichtenstein and Warhol. Pop art and graphic became an obsession in my early teens. When it came time to pick my major at Boston College, I remember telling my parents I wanted to be an art major. My wise dad told me that “Every Artist needs to know how to run a business” therefore business marketing became my major and art was my concentration. 20 years later I opened my art gallery, Uptripping, and my dad was there to tell me he told me so. Every small business owners knows that you have to be a jack of all trades; accounting, marketing, buying, selling, creating, and so much more.

Website: Www.shannonhenn.com

Instagram: ShannonFoleyHenn

Facebook: Uptripping

Other: Www.Uptripping.com