I have been haunted by faces since my early childhood. Faces of the living, of the dying, and of rebirth. I see the many masks and layers of these faces, but I am fascinated with what is actually underneath.

Paul Shilling was born in the Rama First Nation in 1953. As an Indigenous man, Paul works to shed the image that was taught to him as a child – that he was undesirable, shameful, unworthy. Paul knows that most of our faces are cover-ups, well trained to hide a lifetime of pain, shame and guilt.

The masks, universally, are all the same, but what is underneath is truly unique, and seeks expression. The many personas that we create, keep us from knowing who we really are. As he expresses himself, healing arises; the inner voice and the inner eye clear and open for the energy of images to move through him from “the great house of invention”. This is a gift from the sky world which comes to life in the paintings. This continual redefinition, the questioning and searching, keeps his work alive and varied as he welcomes the ever-changing self.

Paul Shilling attended Georgian College in Barrie, ON for Fine Arts in the early 1990’s, but is primarily self-taught and informed through his life experience.