Art Talks at Brand is a series that invites contemporary artists to discuss their work and the issues surrounding it, followed by a moderated Q&A with Brand staff member, artist, and writer Jennifer Remenchik. Artists are selected to reflect the diversity of the art scene of the greater Los Angeles area. Shanna Waddell (b. 1981, Long Beach, CA) is a Los Angeles-based painter.  Waddell’s paintings depict a built world focused on the activities of a self- sustaining, flower farm artist commune called Sheness Society.  Her works demonstrate a fantastical otherworld, one that is both whimsical and utterly alluring, thrusting a viewer into an imagined utopian landscape. Across the canvases and sculptures, Waddell chronicles the day-to-day enterprises of the artist collective: flower-farming, plein-air painting, gathering of supplies, utilizing the community wagons, and meditating in a state of tranquility. Her work absorbs and adapts the primarily masculine modes of painting with pure freedom and interjects her spirit with a creative fearless feminine fortitude - freely injecting ideas for future artistic systems of living. Waddell attended the Headlands Center of the Arts and received an MFA in Drawing and Painting, Tyler School of Art, Temple University, and a BFA in Drawing and Painting, CSU, Long Beach. Her next solo exhibition will open at Vielmetter (Los Angeles, CA). The series is sponsored by the Brand Associates. All programs are free and open to the public. Arrive early to view the exhibition, " Brand 53: 53rd Annual National Juried Exhibition of Works on Paper.” For more information on Art Talks at Brand, please visit our website: BrandLibrary.org/Art-Talks Images: Artist portrait; Shanna Waddell, “Sheness Gathers Roses” (detail), oil on canvas, 66.25 x 49.75 in, 2025. Images courtesy of the artist. --- Free parking is available in Brand Park. An accessible entrance and accessible parking for cars with a disabled parking placard or license plate is located on the East side of Brand Library. For additional information about this event, please contact Brand Library & Art Center at (818) 548-2051 or send us an email at Info@BrandLibrary.org.