About The Artist

Amy Petrie Shaw works in a variety of media. Her work is characterized by use of vivid colors and distorted perspective, with bold use of line. She is heavily influenced by mid-20th century artists Barnett Newman, Helen Frankenthaler, and Sam Francis, and often uses thick material applications, layering, and compositing to bring depth and life to her work. Shaw studied with mid-Century Modernist painter and sculptor JL Haley, and with Cincinnati-based collage artist and painter Betty Dayton-Cautley. Church is art. Art is religion. When Amy is not covered in paint and ink, she is the senior minister at First Unitarian Church, Des Moines, Iowa. Shaw has a Master of Divinity degree from Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago. Amy currently lives in West Des Moines with her beloved friends Nancy and Doug, and her feline minions Dippy-Cat, Nike the Great, and Marshmallow. About her art, Amy says: “My work is about moments of wildness. I see the world as a series of possibilities linked by endless streams of energy, and my art reflects the frenetic power of each frozen moment I embody on the canvas.”