"A certain kind of magic happens when you're lost in your work. Invariably, I am amazed and illumined by it. To be honest, I have no "mission" as an artist. The goal is to do that thing that I'm compelled to do. "

Born in Washington, D.C., in 1952, Shelley Laffal began her art training in 1971 at the Maryland Art Institute in Baltimore. Traveling to Sasketchewan, Canada, she studied with Canadian artist Ernest Lindner at The Emma Lake Art Community and at the California Institute of The Arts (Cal Arts), in Valencia, California, with painter Paul Brach (husband of Miriam Shapiro).

After years of roaming the back streets of Santa Fe and Key West, and living in Costa Rica, Laffal found the moody colors and emotional intensity of Latin culture infusing her work - an influence that's still evident today.

In 1986 she returned to the nation's capital, where she spent a decade exploring sculpture as a way of extending her visual vocabulary. She developed a series of large-scale garment/shroud like sculptures whose intricately painted surfaces and dramatic fossil-like female forms became her trademark. But her need to tell a more intimate and less abstract story inspired her to seriously explore figurative painting.

My new series of oils are essentially portraits to which I give myself license to do mischief.

Maryland Art Institute, Baltimore, Maryland

Emma Lake Art Community (Maryland Art Institute Affiliate) Saskatchewan, Canada

California Institute Of The Arts, Valencia, CA

2002 Masters Class, Phillip Pearlstein, Corcoran Museum, Wash., DC

1973 Cabot Plaza Gallery, Taos, New Mexico

1974 Pirates Alley Gallery, Key West Florida

1979 4 Woman Artists; Woman's Center, Sarasota, Florida, Sponsored by Florida Fine Arts Council

1980 Emerging Female Voice, Thomas Center Gallery, University Florida, Gainesville, Florida

1981 Group Show II, Woman's Center, Sarasota, Florida, Sponsored by Florida Fine Arts Council

1982 Tampa Bay '82, Tampa Museum, Tampa, Florida

1984 Group Show, Joan Hodgell Gallery, Sarasota, Florida

1985 Group Show, Joan Hodgell Gallery, Sarasota, Florida

1988 2nd Annual Humor Show, Zenith Gallery, Washington, DC

1989 3rd Annual Humor Show, Zenith Gallery, Washington, DC

1990 Off The Wall, Quadrangle Development Corp., Washington, DC,

1990 International Sculpture '90, Montgomery College, Rockville, Maryland,

1991 Group Show, Zenith Gallery, Washington, D.C.

1991 Art About Function, Washington Square, Washington, DC.

1991 Secret Lives, Solo Show, Zenith Gallery, Washington, DC

1992 Gallery Artists, Zenith Gallery, Washington, DC,

1992 Personal Adornment, Textile Arts Centre, Chicago, IL

1993 Decorators’ Show House, for Bloomingdales, Washington, DC.

1993 Christmas Show, Zenith Gallery, Washington, DC

1994 Indigo Galleries, Boca Raton, Florida.

1994 Art Across The Borders, The Art Museum Of The Americas, Washington, DC.

1994 Annual Intro Show/Paintings, Zenith Gallery, Washington, DC

1995 17th Anniversary Show, Zenith Gallery, Washington, DC

1995 Figurative Show, Wax Lander Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico

1996 Gallery Artists, Zenith Gallery, Washington, DC

1998 Tree man- Human, 20th Anniversary Show, Zenith Gallery, Wash., DC

1999 Washington Square, Wash., D.C.

2000 Tyson II Corporate Headquarters, McLean, VA.

2001 Touchstone Gallery, 2000 All Media Juried Show, Washington, DC

2002 Angels and Messengers, The Dennis & Phillip Ratner Museum, Bethesda, MD

2005 Food, Glorious Food, Zenith Gallery

The Hechinger Collection, Washington, D.C.

The collection of Robert Kogad, Washington D.C.

The collection of Dr. N. Green, Potomac, Maryland

The collection of Andria and Harvey Boyarsky-Maisel, Potomac, Maryland

RM Designs, Upper Marlboro, Maryland

Ovations, Laurel, Maryland

The collection of Rhonda Levitt, Coral Gables, Florida

The collection of Dr. Jack Costa, Reston, Virginia

The collection of Prince Bendar - Ambassador of Saudia Arabia, McLean, VA

The collection of Prince Moataz Saud Abdulaziz, McLean, VA

The collection of Erwin Katz, Bethesda, Maryland