Shane Savage-Rumbaugh received his M.F.A. in painting from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York and is currently Assistant Professor at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts. He has been awarded residency grants to Rowe Conference Center and Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts. In 1996, he was recipient of the John Hartwell Award for Graduate Achievement in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning at Cornell University.
Recent exhibitions include “The Figure Now” at Westport Arts Center in Connecticut, “Mute” at Anne Arundel College in Maryland, “Lustrus Lustrum” at Artworks Gallery, New Bedford, MA, and National Competition Exhibition at First Street Gallery, New York, NY.
“The painting impulse is always with me, and it’s always enriching my experience of the world. Painting has magnified my awareness of structures and patterns. Knowledge tends to deepen mystery for me, mostly because the more I learn; the more I realize there is to know,” says Shane of his life and work.
In his work as a painter, Shane draws inspiration from one of the most enduring subjects in the history of art — the figure. Throughout history, imagery of the body has been found etched, painted, sculptured, or shaped in an attempt to define the human condition. In contemporary art, references to the figure are often been used as a metaphor or an allegory to shape or question order and meaning — through complexities of emotion and intellectual awareness.
As an educator, Shane’s approach to making art is inclusive — organizing accessible programs such at Stonehill’s “Get Your Draw On Day-Long Drawing Marathon” which was open to students, faculty, staff, alumni, and neighbors of the college. He calls drawing “the bedrock of visual expression…the hub from which everything else emanates. Drawing is common to all people and cultures.”