Triangle Land Conservancy: Member Spotlight August 2009


	Triangle Land Conservancy 1101 Haynes Street Suite 205 Raleigh, NC 27604 919.833.3662

Member Spotlight - August 2009

Shannon Bueker

by Catherine Bollinger

TLC is important to artist Shannon Bueker because she “loves living in the woods.” She was raised in Texas by parents with generations-deep roots in that state. But since living in Chatham County with her husband, Rick, for the past seventeen years, she’s developed a deep appreciation of North Carolina’s Piedmont forests.

As is true for many members, TLC’s commitment to preserving local native and historically important environments is what prompted Shannon’s support. She says,

“It’s hard to grapple with the bigness of global tree loss and habitat loss, so I focused on local. I have lived in some very developed and concrete-covered places. I wanted to give money to the people who were paying attention to development here and support their work.”

Shannon also participates in the Haw River Assembly’s Streamwatch program, working with a team of fellow volunteers to monitor the water quality of Brooks Creek, a tributary of the Haw River.

Shannon is a full-time artist working in several media. You can learn about her work by visiting her website: http://www.notnowkato.com. She earned her BFA from the University of Texas in Austin. She’s also a part-time yoga teacher.

For the past two years, Shannon has donated to TLC 10% of her profits from sales of her artwork made during the Chatham Artists Guild Studio Tour, which occurs in December each year.

As an artist, Shannon appreciates the subtlety of the light that illuminates Triangle forests – so different from the intensity of Texas sunlight. Native and domesticated animals are often subjects of her artwork. She has a fondness for possums and has immortalized them through her art on several occasions. One of her goals as an artist is to focus attention on the animals that share our environment.

When she’s not working, Shannon enjoys long walks on the dirt roads near her home and art studio, and she loves to watch the birds and other wildlife that inhabit her backyard. She has a special fondness for the flying squirrels and kingfishers that pass through occasionally. And she enjoys the challenge of identifying the birds who call to each other as they move high above her in the Piedmont trees she has learned to love.

Member Spotlight Archives

June 2010 - Greg Smith and Cyndi Grover

May 2010 - Todd and Kathleen Shapley-Quinn

April 2010 - Joyce & Fred Sparling

March 2010 - Diane Allen

February 2010 - Jane Kendall and Ran Coble

January 2010 - Kris and David Jackson

December 2009 - Carol Ruess

November 2009 - Kent Fiala

October 2009 - Linda and Rufus Edmisten

September 2009 - Barbara and Jonathan Sheline

August 2009 - Shannon Bueker