As a basket maker and jewelry designer, Shannon Lucas Westrum has had works at the American Craft Council Show, MacRostie Art Center, Nemeth Art Center, Watermark Art Center and area arts festivals. She is an arts instructor and avid maker, demonstrating basket making at many arts festivals. Shannon is most interested in the preservation and continuation of traditional arts.

Weaving since 1999, Westrum began to experiment with materials from paper and plastic industrial strapping to antler and driftwood. Her primary materials of choice are round reed (rattan) or willow. In 2017, Westrum was awarded one of two Region 2 Arts Individual Artist Fellowships. That award took her to Ireland to work with world renown Basket Maker, Joe Hogan, Ciaran Hogan, and Heike Kahle to study willow weaving.

“It took me many years to learn that for me, being a creator, someone who makes things with their hands, is not a hobby, and it’s not an occupation. It’s my way of living. As long as I can remember, I have had a need to make things. It's my way of escaping and connecting at the same time.”