Born in upstate New York into a family with a love for antiques and a collection of early family silhouettes, Annapolis artist Alison Shriver was inspired to create a totally unique collection of silhouettes and collages which has attracted a wide audience throughout the United States and abroad.

Her paper cutting collages make use of early American images and symbols and use actual antique documents and ledgers as backgrounds. The combination of antique Americana, painstaking detail, and a very clean, crisp modern design sense creates a highly prized, individual art style. It was this very American and artistic uniqueness that led to an invitation from TOKYU, one of Japan's leading department stores, for Alison Shriver to participate in an "American Festival" in Tokyo, in November 1992.

Alison Shriver's artwork is exhibited and sold in prestigious shows and in stores and museum shops throughout this country as well as in Europe. She is a juried member of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen. Her work has been carried in the J. Peterman, Williamsburg, Ballard Designs, Bungalow, Sturbridge Yankee & The Orvis catalogues - it also has been featured on the cover of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and Spiegel catalogues. Her work has also appeared in Family Circle, Country Home, Country Living (1999 & 2006), Home, Victoria and Coastal Living magazines and was featured in a New York Times full page ad by Bloomingdales' Decorator Showroom.

Alison Shriver holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree, majoring in Graphic Design & Photography, from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She has worked as a designer in television in Baltimore, Los Angeles, & London. For the past 22 years she has operated Alison Shriver Designs in Maryland. Alison sees her work and her creativity as flowing from a wellspring of sources. She credits the indomitable spirit of her mother, Abigail Holcomb. Similarly, she notes the support of her late husband, William Shriver, an actor-writer, and of her daughter, Abigail Shriver, with whom she works and who, herself, specializes in compositions of children. She is also grateful for the support of her brothers Thomas & Alan Busby. Her two Grandchildren, Austin & Amanda are a constant inspiration & help.

Photograph by Nolan Simon