Greetings. I am Hannah Michael Gale Shapero, artist, illustrator,
scholar, and the person in Pyracantha Studios.
I was born in Boston, Mass. and grew up in the Boston area and in Rome, Italy. My father is a classical music composer, Harold Shapero. My mother, Esther Geller, is an artist. Their heritage of art, music, and high culture has been my joy all my life.
I studied Classics--Greek and Latin--as an undergraduate at Brandeis University and as a graduate at Harvard. I was also active as an artist and writer during that time. In 1978 I left academia for an art career, and in 1981 became a professional artist. I have studied art at the Boston University art school but most of my training has been with private teachers, especially my mother.
My specialties in art are science fiction, fantasy, and architecture. I also do commercial illustration, usually for real estate and computer-related advertisements. I have done many science fiction book covers, magazine covers, interior illustrations, and countless private commissions.
Pyracantha
('fire-thorn') is a common landscaping shrub with bright orange berries.
You are invited to visit the:
Images of Ancient Persian Angels.
An example of my colored pencil portraits can be found on Robert Stockton's home page.
My scholarly specialty is the ancient and still-living religion of
ZOROASTRIANISM.
Another one of my scholarly interests is Western Esotericism.
This rich and varied philosophical and mystical tradition, which
grew up parallel to Christianity, continues to be studied and
practiced in the Western cultural world.
For Western Esoteric information, click here.
I belong to the Order of St. Michael, an ecumenical Christian faith community with a a mystical, esoteric, devotional emphasis. The OSM supports the spiritual paths of people whose imaginative, freethinking, unconventional lifestyles are frowned on or ignored by the mainstream churches.
I am a fan of volcanoes and volcanic phenomena. If you like them
too, please visit my volcano section.
After a visit to Fermilab in 2000,
I decided to realize a long time ambition and began studying mathematics,
which I had not studied since high school, with the hope of learning
physics as well. Here are some essays about my progress in my new journey.
Visit Pyracantha's imaginary world.
Read about my journey into mathematics and physics since 2004. Click on the Electron
Blue logo.
Send me email at volcannah@yahoo.com
"Mind, which is the keenest of all things incorporeal, has for its body fire,
the keenest of all the material elements. Mind is the maker of things, and
in making things it uses fire as its instrument."
--Corpus Hermeticum, ca. 3rd-4th century CE