Cars from Almagordo, NM

Cars from Almagordo, NM (detail)

Blue

Blue Speed

            My work focuses on the transitory nature of life. I am fascinated by the way natural forces alter and redefine all things including those made by humans. I am less interested in the emotions that we connect with decay than in the visual complexity that arises from it. I see myself as a reporter, recording surfaces and other visual information much like a news reporter records events. Sometimes I employ multiple, collaged or fragmented images. This allows me to suggest more information about a subject than would be given by a single image. It allows me to bring different imaged together to make broader statements about the mood of a place or a time. At other times I will concentrate on one image that presents something that I am particularly drawn to and wish to share.

A 2002 article in Embroidery magazine had this to say about her technique; "In order to stitch the many layers necessary to arrive at these complex images, Shinn sets her sewing machine with the feed dogs lowered so that she is in complete control of the position of the fabric and the density of the stitches. The rich surfaces that build from the layering of numerous coloured threads cover the entire canvas base. Shinn notes this dense, all-over effect is similar to cross-hatched lines across the surface of a drawing paper. In fact, it is her love of drawing, evident in her command of proportion and detail, which first led Shinn to embroidery. The hand of an artist competent in her command of line, form and composition is certainly evident in her second chosen medium of thread and stitch."