Shielaugh Victoria Divelbiss hails from the west side of Cranston centrally located in the small state of Rhode Island. Here she spent her childhood making up stories and illustrating stacks of books for her friends and family. Today she continues this passion for pictorial storytelling with a larger audience. Shielaugh credits her high-school art instructor, Helen Poor, for honing her representational drawing skills and telling her "to be a wild beast when painting", which still makes Shielaugh think about the colour palette she uses. At the age of 15 her artwork began to appear in galleries in Providence, RI. At this same time she began teaching lessons to young children on Saturdays at The Tsetse Gallery. In 1999 she moved to Columbus, OH to attend the Columbus College of Art and Design with a Presidential Scholarship. She entered CCAD to become an animator but during her foundation year color concept class she discovered her love for illustrating. In addition she learned her love for typography, painting in gouache and discovered an eye for color styling. In 2003 she graduated Magna Cum Laude with her BFA and moved to El Cerrito, CA. She spent the next three years studying at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, where she graduated with distinction and received her M.F.A in Traditional Illustration in 2006. Since then she has been creating logo designs, greeting cards, brochures and children's books for various companies and works as an art specialist for The City of El Cerrito. She lives with her family in Richmond Heights, CA.
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