Shannon LaRue

 

 

 

 

 

 

i look for you everywhere is composed of text and images pulled from over 3 years of writing and photographing. To borrow a phrase from Leonard Cohen, it is a ‘Book of Longing’. Longing to love with words, reaching for “you” – past, present, and dreamed. It is full of nostalgia for lost loves and past selves – and hints at a discovery of the present self, independent and stronger than before. In this book, personal histories are rewritten in order to find meaning in all this groping along the wall. Shedding the illusions of self-worth we had previously sought in others, we begin to build new selves, ones able and ready to love with action.

Shannon LaRue is an artist living and working in Maryland. She feels reluctant to remain within the symbolic order, and most of her work deals with these feelings of reluctance. On the other hand, she thinks, Why not just give in fully and not even try to connect? Since my work, and my life, and everything else in the world, are all part of this order, why not just deal purely in symbols? Even symbolic actions? She gets so stuck in this rut, and spends most of her time searching for things that shake her out of it. Shannon is also an independent art book publisher, and her press is called New Humanisms Press. Her work has been shown at School 33 and Current Gallery in Baltimore.