Reverend Amy Petrie Shaw is a modern American humorist and mixed-media artist. Her artwork is characterized by the use of vivid colors and distorted perspective, with bold use of line. She is heavily influenced by mid-20th century artists Barnett Newman, Helen Frankenthaler, and Sam Francis, and often uses thick material applications, layering, and compositing to bring depth and life to her work.
Background
Born in Northern Kentucky and still not dead, Shaw was adopted by Robert and Carol Petrie and raised in rural Campbell County where she managed to avoid being eaten by muskrats or sucked into quicksand. Shaw spent her formative years blissfully poking at things with sticks, falling into creeks, and being bitten, stung, pinched, or chased by random samples of local wildlife.
Fascinated by all of life's possibilities and not understanding the concepts of "off-days" and "vacations", Shaw has been an English teacher, college professor, alternative newspaper editor, nurse, and nurse executive prior to entering the ministry where everyone hopes she will stay and stop pestering people..
So far it seems to be working.
Education
Shaw graduated from Northern Kentucky University in 1991 with a BA in English and Minors in Women's Studies and Psychology. In 1997 she received her nursing certificate from the Northern Kentucky Health Technology Center (Gateway College) and in 2006 she became a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator in the state of Kentucky.
In 2013 Shaw graduated from Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago, IL with a Master of Divinity Degree. She was ordained to the ministry on April 28th, 2013 and received Final Fellowship within the Unitarian Universalist Church in 2016.
Career
After 22 years in healthcare and academia, Amy Petrie Shaw chose to answer a call to ministry, and left nursing. She was determined to avoid the cold and so, of course, attended seminary in Chicago and was called immediately upon graduation to Hartland, Wisconsin, where she proudly served the Lake Country Unitarian Universalist Church as their settled minister from 2013 to 2019.
For six years Amy could usually be found shivering and clutching a mug of coffee somewhere in Hartland, accompanied by the Dippy Cat, Nike the Great, Marshmallow the Outdoor Invader Cat and a hoard of vaguely suspect raccoons.
Given the humor of the situation, she filled her evenings writing about the antics of her evil cat, discombobulated husband, and various and assorted other characters. From this hobby grew "The Tao of the Dippy Cat", her first humor novel, which spent three weeks on the Amazon Humor Best Seller list, peaking at #6.
Shaw's artwork has been shown at the ARC Gallery in Chicago, the North Lake Town Hall Library in Wisconsin, The Off-Ludlow Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the UCDSM Gallery in Des Moines, Iowa, and has been mentioned in New Art Examiner magazine.
Amy wears black, sometimes runs with scissors, and always knows where her towel is. She gave up trying to be sophisticated when a raccoon ate her cigarette holder.
She still does not understand the concept of "weekends" or "off-days" so in 2019 she left Hartland for the balmy climes of sunny central Iowa, and became the settled minister at the First Unitarian Church of Des Moines.
Religion
Reverend Amy Petrie Shaw is a Universalist Christian, and a Fellowshipped Unitarian Universalist minister in Full Fellowship. Ordained on April 28th, 2013, Shaw was welcomed into Full Fellowship in 2016.
Politics
Shaw's political views are fluid but fall most strongly in line with Democratic Socialism.
Views
The Reverend Amy Petrie Shaw brings a vibrant voice and dynamic presence to Unitarian Universalist ministry, and is unafraid to share a gospel of Love based on radical welcome and intersectional inclusion.
Shaw is not about "a casual faith," but about a living faith; she calls the world to deep and meaningful connection, lived values, and worship which nourishes the mind and soul.
Amy Petrie Shaw believes in simple transparency, lived values, and lots of books.
She is honest and funny, with an edge to her wit which skewers pomposity and shines a light on things some people would rather hide.
Quotations:
“Waking up, for many people, is apparently a positive experience. There are twittering birds and the smell of fresh coffee fills the air.
These people do not live at my house.”
― Amy Petrie Shaw, The Tao of the Dippy Cat: A Series of Uncomfortable Incidents and Horrible Happenings
“Little known fact- a cat which has just bitten itself in the ass can achieve impressive speed at it dashes madly straight up a curtain.”
Amy Petrie Shaw, The Tao of the Dippy Cat: A Series of Uncomfortable Incidents and Horrible Happenings
“She is an agent of the Devil, possibly escorted out of Hell for behavior which would make a demon go "Ooooo, that's nasty!”
― Amy Petrie Shaw, The Tao of the Dippy Cat: A Series of Uncomfortable Incidents and Horrible Happenings
“You know that feeling you get, when the sky has turned green, air raid sirens are blowing, the theme to the "Wizard of Oz" wafts softly through the air, your neighbor has just blown by backwards on her bicycle, and an ominous funnel cloud is hovering on the horizon?
Yeah, that feeling. the one that says that says "A picnic! That's what I need to do right about now! What could possible go wrong?”
― Amy Petrie Shaw, The Tao of the Dippy Cat: A Series of Uncomfortable Incidents and Horrible Happenings
“Marshmallow the Outdoor Invader Cat... is not involved in this story. She is orange, has lots and lots of teeth, hangs out outside, and beats up raccoons for fun. She has also been known to jump a full-grown buck deer and mug squirrels. If she carried a wallet, it would look like the one Jules carried in Pulp Fiction.)”
― Amy Petrie Shaw, The Tao of the Dippy Cat: A Series of Uncomfortable Incidents and Horrible Happenings
“She drowned all of the catnip mice in Nike's water bowl and I had to take them away after he began drinking the resulting 'nip tea, wearing overalls, and changing all the songs in my favorites playlist to the Grateful Dead.”
― Amy Petrie Shaw, The Tao of the Dippy Cat: A Series of Uncomfortable Incidents and Horrible Happenings
“Dippy sniffs box. Dippy cannot comprehend challenging concepts such as "inside" and "outside"- attempts to balance on folded box edge.
Dippy falls off box. Box flips over onto Dippy.
As Shakespeare would say "There were then divers alarums and great shriekings as of demons or small children under the age of three.”
― Amy Petrie Shaw, The Tao of the Dippy Cat: A Series of Uncomfortable Incidents and Horrible Happenings
“For some reason, possibly known only to my therapist, I decided that Dippy looked so adorable this morning, as she lay gently snoozing on my jacket, that she just had to allow me to cuddle her.
This was an error of a magnitude found somewhere between "invade Poland in the winter" and "hold my beer and watch this.”
― Amy Petrie Shaw, The Tao of the Dippy Cat: A Series of Uncomfortable Incidents and Horrible Happenings
Membership
Unitarian Universalist Ministers' Association
Personality
Despite being a minister, Amy is known for her sense of the ridiculous and her comedic timing. With a larger than life personality and infectious laugh, Shaw finds humor in the little moments of existence.
Connections
Amy Petrie Shaw lives with two beloved friends who she refers to as her "partners in crime." She is married to Brian Shaw, referred to as Captain Chaos in her writings, who lives somewhere in the wilds of Wisconsin and who wishes to avoid associating with either the Dippy Cat or the hoard of random raccoons who seem to find Amy wherever she is.
