Shawn Wedel lives in St. Louis, Missouri, where he paints large scale abstracts he calls "future archaeologies." But that is a relatively recent development. In fact, painting was one of the last things on his mind for the first 36 years of his life, as he spent most of his time and energy trying to be smart. But that damn near drove him so crazy that one day he sat down with several children around a kitchen table and started painting. And he loved it. So he painted more. And more. Then, with much encouragement and growing confidence, he stopped bringing home scraps of cardboard from work and started painting on canvases. He participated in his first group show, "Gravity and Grace," in Alton, Illinois, in 2011, and in 2016 had his first solo show, "Archaic Algebra and Future Archaeologies," in St. Louis.