About the Artist
Shawn Davis is originally from Ithaca, New York. His education
includes a B.S. from Cornell University and an M.A.T. from UNC-Chapel
Hill. He resides in Pleasant Gap, Pennsylvania with his beautiful wife
and two
young sons, and teaches chemistry in nearby State College. In addition
to tying full-dress
salmon flies, he also enjoys tying and fishing practical flies, and
catches most of
his fish on patterns of his own invention.
Shawn is also my brother, and I’ve had the unique
privilege of being in a position to closely observe and participate in
his
flyfishing and flytying journeys. Despite
growing up in a family full of outdoorsmen, Shawn never showed any
interest in
fishing of any kind. Even when I and his
younger brother Brian discovered the magical world of flyfishing, he
remained uninterested. Despite his lack of excitement for any
outdoor sports, though, I always felt that flyfishing and flytying
would captivate
Shawn if he would only allow himself to be introduced to their charm.
Because of this I made repeated efforts to
include him in my excursions, but he would always politely refuse my
overtures.
In the Spring of 1996, Shawn, our brother Brian, and a
couple of our cousins decided to get together and plan a summer trip to Montana. About a week before they left for that trip,
Shawn approached me and asked whether I would be
willing to quickly go over some flyfishing basics with him – it suffices to say I
was shocked but delighted! He explained
that he just “didn’t think it would be right” if he visited Montana and didn’t at least make a token
effort to flyfish while out there. Still
not quite infected with my enthusiasm, he made it quite clear that a couple of
quick lessons would be all he’d need, and much to my disappointment, he still
declined my invitations to actually go fishing a couple of times before their
trip. Apparently, however, Shawn came to realize
on that trip what I had known all along, because immediately upon his return he began
flyfishing obsessively, and obsessive flytying was not far behind.
Shawn found an old flytying book on our parents’ bookshelf, began
teaching himself how to tie, and quickly outpaced my own skills in that arena. At first content to develop practical flies
for the sole purpose of catching trout and salmon, Shawn found his
talents leading him to full-dress salmon flies.
In the year 2002 he began designing jewelry-quality hooks and tinsels for
his artistic flies. From those first
rudimentary hook-making sessions to today, Shawn has spent countless hours honing
his jewelry-making and flytying skills.
A full five years later, he has finally released the first
of those artistic flies to the public. To
this day, he has never received any formal flytying instruction, choosing to either
learn techniques from a small supply of books or, more often, develop his
own techniques to suit his needs.
As I taught Shawn simple fly-casting 11 years ago, I had no
idea that one day I’d be witnessing the beautiful works of art represented
here, but I’m certainly not surprised at the direction and distance that his
passions have carried him. Shawn has
always been at once creative, focused, and incredibly
disciplined – he loves challenges, and once he takes on a challenge he embraces
and pursues it fully. Flyfishing, and to
an even greater extent flytying, are pursuits that appeal to his nature because
they are endeavors that are infinitely challenging and offer infinite
possibilities for creativity. As the
rest of us stand in awe of Shawn’s creations, I know that he is hard at work refining
his craft ever further, exploring, as artists do, the limitless possibilities
of both his own creativity and the medium through which he's chosen
to express it.
– Duane Davis