12 Artists Give the Ehingerians a Festival
Ingeborg Burkhardt
Südwest Presse, August 3, 2002.

In the Ehingen Cultural Centre, the domed chambers beneath the corner tower of the former Franciscan monastery offers a delightful surrounding in which to celebrate with artists. This proved itself on Thursday at the opening festival of the Ehingen Kunstforum Symposium … It was to be a beautiful evening.

Shannon Wardell sat before the easel. Spatula and painting knife in hand, he painted over the canvas while at the same time he read — or rather told — the story which had been written longhand across the linen. This painter from America has been living in Styria for several years. He has also mounted the stage in various theaters in Graz. And he draws a colourful picture, not just with his paint. He described scenes out of his life; he told about a human bone that he had collected as subject material for realistic drawing and which caused him to be thrown into jail at one point.

Lightening-fast he put his thoughts into words about Zeus, Kant, politics and the completely normal craziness in the world, thoughts that had moved in his head while detained in the jail cell. As it became apparent that the prisoner was innocent, and that the bone did not come from some serious, psychotic crime, Wardell ended his story. A blues jam on the mouth harmonica was the dot above the “i” for his performance.