From Wales to South Lake Tahoe – artist opens new studio at Untethered

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Shelley Zenter has been an artist since first picking up her first piece of charcoal at the age of 12. She said she knew meant to be an artist at that young age. In school, she had completed a portrait of a fellow student, and when it was displayed everyone in the school immediately who the picture was, and who she was.

“I felt invisible before,” she said reflecting on her childhood. “I never looked back.”

Shelley, who was born in Llandudno, Wales, moved to the United States in 2005, She completed a road trip across Canada, then into the States from border to border. Along the trip, she met her now-husband. She also met someone who asked if they could return a guitar to South Lake Tahoe. Since she had an uncle in Kings Beach, Shelley said “Sure,” and the rest one could say, is history.

Within days of seeing the South Shore of Lake Tahoe, they had rented a home on the top of Kingsbury Grade and found jobs – Shelley at Lake Tahoe Community College and husband Taylor with the Lahontan Regional Water Board. She taught at the college for several years and Taylor is still with the water board.

Shelley earned a degree in Art & Visual Culture in 1997. Two years prior was her first exhibition, and this helped inspire her to not only work hard but to forge a career in art. During the following years she not only excelled in art, but in rock climbing. She had a studio in the UK until 2005 when she grabbed her climbing shoes and art supplies and headed to Canada.

She finds many places to create her works of art, from Wales to the Pacific Ocean to her backyard in Christmas Valley where she and Taylor are raising their daughter. Shelley appreciates the changing beauty of the Upper Truckee River. Even though she has a studio in their home, she finds being a plein air artist connecting her to nature.

It was nature after the devastating Caldor Fire that created a new medium for her art – charcoal from the burned trees left in the wake of the almost 222,000 acre fire in 2021.

She finds a lot of symbolism in her creations.

“It’s the work that keeps on giving,” said Shelley of her art. She said she looks at a painting and can find a new discovery within its frame. Each movement of the hand with the charcoal (or whatever other medium she is using) gives layers to the art that go far beyond the surface.

“It unfolds over time,” added Shelley.

Since the first display of her art in grade school, Shelley has shown her work at commercial art galleries, museums, art fairs, castles (yes, real ones), chapels, climbing festivals, and more. She recently had a show at Lake Tahoe Community College and has a permanent gallery on both sides of the state line – at Untethered in Round Hill along with Cowork Tahoe. Her work is displayed on the walls of both coworking spaces and the public can make appointments to stop by and get a tour. To find out more, visit her website at https://shelleyzen.us/untethered-art/.

The artist recently spoke to Tahoe Douglas Rotarians, sharing with them her journey in art and in life. One of their members, Brian Williams, worked in the same castle hotel in Wales as Shelley did, just a couple of decades before her.

Shelley will be giving a demonstration at Cowork Tahoe with the Tahoe Art League on Thursday, March 20 at 5:30 p.m. Co-Work Tahoe is located at 3079 Harrison Ave., South Lake Tahoe. Along with giving the demonstration, Shelley will talk about pastel and charcoal drawing. Focusing on the tactile qualities of natural earth pigments, Shelley will share her love for handheld materials, as both an art-making vehicle and portal to the present moment via the senses.