Shelley Krycer (she/her) is a visual artist and Steiner educator based on Wurundjeri country in the Yarra Valley who draws inspiration from and uses creative practice as ways to listen to and deepen relationship with the living earth.

Within her painting practice, Shelley works layers of tone and texture to explore the living pulse that she senses within the greater landscapes surrounding her as well as simultaneously attuning to the mystery of the tingling, humming life force that moves within. She works her stained-glass like images with watercolour on the page often beginning with a feeling or gesture yet seeing them through to completion is a process of discovery working with the unknown, with listening and sensing.

Alongside Shelley’s painting practice she weaves. Shelley came to basket weaving over a decade ago. When she did, Shelley found that her hands had a sense of ‘returning’ to something that they had long known. They wove and wove, and continue to weave, with a sense of remembering and learning with each stitch. Working as she does primarily with wild harvested and home grown plant materials has brought an additional layer to her practice of foraging and gardening as an ongoing, living relationship with the natural world. Through her weaving practice Shelley finds that she is able to listen to, observe, participate and deepen her sensitivity to the eco-systems around her, working cyclically across the seasons. Shelley facilitates workshops as a way to weave the village back together; forming new connections and creating in circle as we have long done before.

Shelley’s process-based art making practice which includes painting alongside basket making and other nature based art processes is informed by trainings within a Fine Arts (Honours) degree she completed in 2004 (Monash University) as well as studies in Art Education (Grad Dip Ed. Melbourne University, 2006), Permaculture (Advanced PDC with Peter Allen, 2013) and Steiner Education (Advanced Diploma, Melbourne Rudolf Steiner Seminar 2016-17). She also draws inspiration from rituals and mythology from her own European Jewish heritage. Shelley has been teaching art and facilitating workshops since 2004 and sharing basket weaving workshops since 2014. She has been invited to bring this work to festivals such as Seven Sisters and The Village Continuum, as part of programs hosted by Nature’s Apprentice as well as facilitating weaving circles for groups of people at significant moments and transitions.

Shelley is continuously moved by the depth of presence, nourishment, connection and joy that these processes and practices worked upon independently and in circles brings.