Chelbi Wade // Shell & Bee Studio
shell & bee studio// chelbi wade
Shell & Bee is a studio space that focuses on connecting art, community, and education. We host open studio time, regularly scheduled classes and workshops for adults as well as children, gallery events, and community-based events.
We want to help patrons gain a better understanding of artists and their respective movements, as well as allowing an individual exploration of materials. It is a sanctuary to connect around art. We provide a safe environment, where people feel free to be themselves with support from others. We embody a sense of acceptance that allows others to see their full potential, setting up each student to be successful in all endeavors.
chelbi wade//shell & bee studio
Chelbi Wade is a freelance artist and art educator working and living in Deep River, Connecticut. Her artwork explores growth & decay through interdisciplinary works. She experiments with printmaking, sewing, & painting with various fabrics and papers. She often makes 2 dimensional works that give viewer a tactile sense, exploring with how we use can use our other senses, like sight to achieve an idea of touch. At a very young age, Wade was intrigued by the natural world and its components. She spent her earlier years exploring the 10 acres of wood surrounding her parent’s home on the shoreline of Connecticut. Her infatuation built into her curiosity about growth forms of species of fungus.
In 2014, she received her undergrad in sculpture with an emphasis on art education from Montserrat College of Art and Design in Beverly, Massachusetts. After graduation, Wade began teaching at Circle of Friends Montessori in Chester, CT where she taught and headed the art program. During this time, she received her Primary Montessori teaching certificate from Northeast Montessori Institute. After teaching for 4 years, Wade left Montessori in pursuit of better health and her personal art career. In 2019, she began teaching private art classes out of her studio in Deep River. in 2020, Wade opened shell & bee studio. In 2020, she was nominated and voted as Hartford Courant’s “Best of” 2020 Artists. She has had gallery showings around Boston and Connecticut, including Sprouted Coffee, Harvest Moon, Earth & Fire Studio, River Valley Artist Tour, 301 Gallery, and 808 Gallery to name a few. Her work has been featured in Boston Printmakers, Blackkat Leather, The Griswold Inn, and Perkatory Coffee Roasters and can currently be found hanging on the walls at Grano Arso and The Hebron House. In 2021, Wade founded SoMA (south of main art collective) which will open in Deep River in June
Wade’s work is influenced by the artworks of artists, Tara Donavan, Eve Hesse, and Audrey Goldstein
“Two of our daughters have been taking art lessons with Chelbi since they were 3. They are now 7 + 8, and have developed a wonderful bond with ‘Miss Chelbi’. It’s such a joy to watch the girls grow as independent artists, and amazing to observe the way Chelbi connects with + guides them. We are so blessed to have her as a teacher, friend, and community builder.”
— Adam P. + Erica S. (Essex, CT)