SHIRA SHIR-HASHIRIM

Shira Shir-Hashirim

It was only after the Tinterburgh riots did Sheila Shir-Hashirim begin to consider herself as an artist. Before that, painting was just a hobby, something she had a talent for but never thought of as a serious, adult enterprise.

 

Witnessing the savage choreography of violence changed all that. Pasonville prior to that awful April afternoon in 2003 wasn’t known for its volatility, but one can never be too confident about what simmers beneath the surface. Shir-Hashirim was there and was hit over the head and on the back of her neck with a braided bastinado. She saw blood and she saw death but she also saw acts of unexpected mercy. She saw her life as if from the outside and it was when she found herself hiding behind a plumbago bush for a full two hours she realized the life of a fitness trainer was not for her.

 

She left Pasonville soon afterward and settled in Michena. At the time Michena was known for its poetry scene, its bourbon latte cafés, and its tolerance for idleness. It was the perfect place for radical reinvention and Shira Shir-Hashirim quickly fell in with the local acrobats, gamblers, and painters.

 

Her work developed slowly but it never deviated from its core iconography. Lush beauty and escapism, though frowned upon in places like New York and Paris, was fully embraced by the local critics and curators.