Work

The act of making is a dialogue between myself and the materials to create a bond between the image, color and spatial relationships, media, surface, and scale—be it intimate or encompassing. I have always found it meaningful to focus on the materiality of paint and surfaces in my exploration of emotional and psychological intensity. I create organic shifts between subject and environment—dissolving figurative elements into near abstraction to emphasize the ephemerality of memory, time, and our conceptions of who we are, what has happened, and what might happen next within the fluctuating surfaces. I work on a piece until the imagery contrasts and connects with evolving, uncertain environments and surface qualities—until the composition feels alive in its tension, unity and meaning. I make art about what fascinates me, and I can be intrigued and frightened by what the art reveals in itself as I search to uncover the inner workings of my subjects as well as myself. —Shannon Rae Fincke