Shawne Major, born in New Iberia, Louisiana, resides in Opelousas. She received her BFA from the University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette and her MFA from Rutgers University, then lived in New York in the '90s. After beginning her career as a painter, Major turned to the found object assemblage "tapestries" she has been producing for over 15 years. Upon her return to Louisiana, she was selected along with 85 international artists to exhibit her post-pop, found-object assemblage works in the Prospect.1 New Orleans Biennial held in 2008. She has received grant awards from the the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, and the Joan Mitchell Foundation, among others.