Today we’d like to introduce you to Shanden Simmons.
Hi Shanden, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Born and raised in Kentucky, early on it was apparent I had a proclivity for art and creativity. I see it as my first language. I began drawing as early as 3-4 and by 10 or 11 years old I got my first camera, and a pack of mini DV tapes. Making my own movies was the closest thing I could get to emulating what I could perceive was happening behind the scenes of my favorite movies. Naturally, my love for music, art, and creativity progressed and expanded into the medium of film/photography.
At 14 I started playing drums. Over the next couple of years I practiced every chance I got, every day, every opportunity I was allowed to make noise. I found yet another thing that truly made me tic.
Later, I graduated with awards and honors from the Paducah School of Art & Design with an associates degree. This was a significant point in my life, as the reality of pursuing art as a profession became more real. I wanted to continue my formal education in art and film but after taking on student loans just to fulfill my associates degree, I couldn’t justify building on that debt. Instead, I chose to thrust myself into real-world experience. With the first year post-graduation, I had done my first 2 murals, sold original works, and took on other commissions. During 2014 to 2017, I produced, directed, and help shoot my first documentary feature film entitled The Rotunda Project, featuring and lead by my band at the time, Fairseas.
This documentary showcased the impact of collaboration and how it affects community, and the film ultimately being a type of love-letter to my hometown of Paducah, KY. This gained the attention of a local marketing agency who offered me a job as their Project Manager of Film/Photography and being Lead Cinematographer for commercial production. Fairseas continued recording music and playing live shows for about 10 years total.
For the next 3+ years, I produced potentially hundreds of commercial videos, promos, and corporate content as well as creative. Working in this environment was invigorating, and the learning curve was exciting and challenging. By 2020, I set out to start my first business; a solo multimedia venture combining what knowledge I acquired in marketing with my creative arts skills. HUSH ART was born, where I took on mural and art commissions, as well as video production for businesses and musicians/bands (long live the music video!!).
In 2023, I co-founded a music tech startup called OwnAChord. After spending the next 2+ years planting the foundation for this company, I found myself in a new city, no job, with few contacts, and a much bigger place than I was used to. Now, I’m embarking on another solo venture in the tech space, while establishing myself as an artist and muralist in this area. I’m excited to work with new businesses and artists, and hope for opportunities to put my artistic stamp on business and city walls, as well as stages and screens. This city became my new home in October 2025. It has been humbling yet exciting to find myself somewhat ‘starting fresh’.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road has not always been smooth nor easy. Coming from a lower working class family, working just to survive and/or break even was a generational norm. But it’s the exact preparation one needs to endure the hardships of art as a career, as well as being an entrepreneur. The financial side is up and down and back. One main struggle always was trying to carry everything alone. And while one thinks resources are available to hire help, those resources can change quickly.
Burn out has also been a big challenge. Self-employment gets more discouraging when you’re facing burnout. You still have to produce for your clients, but you simply feel drained and like the artist within you has been sidelined, and everything became about just being able to cover basic necessities and bills. There are times when the mental stress becomes undermining of all your best skills and ideas.
The last and latest struggle is navigating a world injected with AI slop and AI alternatives that businesses and other entities opt for to save money. These alternatives being so accessible and efficient have hurt the creative professional market in numerous, potentially irreversible ways. I don’t say this a person who is staunchly against AI, but more from the mindset that these tools should be used with restraint and consideration for the true talent it’s modeled from. Nonetheless, it is affecting and will continue to affect people whom merely a year or two ago could make decent income with their creative skillsets and experience.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
The three pillars that define me as a creative are the mediums of fine art, music, and film.
My fine art mostly comes in the form of large-scale charcoal drawings that blend inspiration from painters like Norman Rockwell and Caravaggio. Italian Renaissance art particularly, moved me in a way that some other periods of art didn’t. I’m inspired by Rockwell for the history and documentarian sensibility, and Caravaggio for light and stylistic choices. I combine these choices with a deep sense of understanding how important it is to hold a mirror up to society in modernity. In my original work, my goal is to simply capture contemporary history and format it in a palatable way that reaches for humanity, while illuminating our darknesses, turmoils, and cultural/political issues that dissolve into the abyss of digital algorithms. Algorithms in which undermined the value and significance of any given historical moment as it could be consumed by future generations.
In 2018, my work was selected to be exhibited at a juried art show in Washington D.C. at the Cato Institute’s inaugural art exhibition. My drawing entitled “The Profile” won Best in Show out of a pool of 72 international artists, myself being the youngest. The drawing was the focal point of the exhibit upon entering the space, and was purchased for $11,000 by a collector before the show even opened. Although not my first sale of original work, this was my first piece purchased at this price-point, showing me what could be possible if I got my work beyond the view of only my small hometown.
Pride can be dangerous. But, if I were to say I’m proud of something, it would be my heart and my family. My family taught well how to live with a good heart.
What does success mean to you?
Having more control over my time than anyone or anything else.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://hushart.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shandensimmons/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@hushartproductions
