About the Studio

Smolen Studio is the collaborative practice of Shelley and Lane Smolen. While each maintains an individual practice, they also collaborate on select works that combine Lane’s wildlife imagery with Shelley’s layered collage process.

Shelley Smolen (MFA, University of North Texas) creates mixed-media collages rooted in sculptural woodworking, assembling hand-painted papers, original drawings, wood veneer, and family-made marks into layered compositions that reflect family, memory and shared creativity. Repurposed materials, including cardboard, wood scraps, and handmade paper made from junk mail and older artworks, also have a place in her practice, reflecting her interest in assembling overlooked fragments into something whole. Woodworking remains part of her practice through handcrafted wood relief elements and wood veneer, adding depth and a sculptural presence to her collages.

Lane Smolen (MFA, SCAD) is a painter and illustrator whose work celebrates wildlife and the natural world through detailed, expressive imagery.  

After becoming a mother, Shelley began bringing her background in sculptural woodworking into a patchwork, marquetry-inspired collage practice. As full-time art educators and parents of three young daughters, creativity at home naturally becomes part of their studio practice.  Their daughters’ painted papers, drawings, and spontaneous marks often become part of Shelley’s finished collages, capturing a glimpse of their shared creative life. Each collage becomes both a finished artwork and a quiet record of family life.

Custom Commissions

Please e-mail shelleyscottstudio@gmail.com to begin the conversation.

Artist Statement

My art practice balances childlike spontaneity with careful structure and refinement. Since becoming a mother to three imaginative daughters, play, experimentation, and shared making have become essential to my creative process. Their marks and our time creating together have expanded my visual language while deepening my interest in combining varied materials to create something new.

Each piece begins with a growing collection of drawings and materials: hand-painted papers, textured paintings, wood veneer, handcrafted relief elements and occasional repurposed materials. Some elements are made collaboratively with my daughters, some by me alone, and others are remnants from earlier works. I cut, layer, repeat, and continually rearrange the fragments, altering them as needed by adding shading, marks, or other details so they relate more closely within the emerging composition.

Symmetry and pattern help me organize the many materials within each work. I move pieces repeatedly in a slow, almost meditative process, responding to relationships between color, texture, and shape. The composition develops through this back-and-forth process, balancing intentional placement with the natural variations found in painted surfaces and wood grain.

For me, this is an act of gathering and transformation. In each finished collage, I bring varied materials, marks, and contributions together through careful attention to color, form, and balance. Each element retains its individual character while becoming part of a larger work.

shelleyscottstudio@gmail.com
@smolenstudio