Artist

Illustrator & Author

As an artist, Shawn McCann is one who loves to explore the relationship of art, space, and interaction. Having graduated the Minneapolis College of Art and Design with a BFA, Shawn has grown into a multi-media, multi-disciplinary artist whose work explores color, texture, form, and content. This approach has led to the many areas in which Shawn’s work has encompassed including 2D and 3D street painting, murals, fine art, children’s books, installation art, temporary and permanent art and commercial illustration. Within each of these areas, each project has been created with its own voice, its own character and culminates in a rich experience for the viewer.

From the children’s book side of Shawns work, he has been a part of over 23 books projects ranging from educational books like “Catch the Wind” and “Catch the Sun” to more mainstream projects like “The Sick Bug” series which Shawn was one of the featured illustrators at the LA Times Festival of Books 2 years in a row. The books Shawn has been a part of have won numerous awards including but not limited to; Silver Moonbeam award, multiple Gold Mom’s Choice Awards, Book of the Year award by Creative Child Magazine, Finalist for 2009 Indie Book Award, Silver MIPA award, Silver Nautilus Award, and a finalist for the Eric Hoffler Award.

When it comes to street painting and murals, Shawn has no size limit or constraint, and location is wherever the mural needs to be complete. This can be evident in his international projects such as creating a large-scale mural for the IIT Techfest in Mumbai, India and his street painting creation for the Wilhelmshaven International Street Painting Festival in Wilhelmshaven, Germany. There are also numerous stateside projects that have taken shape over the years as well including being featured at the Sarasota Chalk Festival and helping create a 3D street Painting for High Wire Daredevil Nik Wallenda, being a part of the first street painting team in the US to create a street painting with Augmented Reality incorporated in, creating a street painting commercial vine for Target corporation for their Summer Up campaign, and being featured at numerous street paintings festivals across the US. As a muralist, Shawn has been fortunate to have worked on a number of public art murals funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and also a MN Legacy grant project. These include murals that were as large as 35ft tall and 150ft long. Other projects include an installation of a temporary 4000 sq foot mural at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and a 3000 sq ft PopUp Park.

Of all of this, Shawn is most excited about the collaboration of Ghost Stories Ink and it’s amazing artists/writers. Having the ability to bring together all of our experiences into projects that are meaningful to us is vital to the work that will continue to thrive. There are also a number of manuscripts that Shawn is writing and putting together for this chapter of his work. With all of this Shawn continues to search for meaningful and cohesive ways in which the many facets of his work can play together and have a deeper impact with his works. Over all, Shawn’s work has won numerous awards and is held in private and public collections. Select Clients include; Target, General Mills, SEI, Mortenson Construction, IIT Bombay, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Weisman Art Museum, Deluxe Corporation, Hamline University, Carlton College, Star Tribune, Minnesota Orchestra, Giants Snacks, and Planet Entertainment Group.