On the other hand, I used to live in NYC. So I have some idea about what I’m missing by choosing to live here. Much of my art is inspired by political events, but it’s not political art in the sense of trying to move people into action. I think of myself more as a witness.”

 

Her long list of solo shows includes Hinkley and Broehel Gallery, Midtown Galleries, Shepherd Gallery, and The Drawing Shop, all of New York, and Alice Bingham Gallery, Memphis, TN, The University of Maine at Farmington, and the Hobe Sound Galleries North, in Portland, Maine. She has been part of numerous juried and group shows in Pennsylvania, New York, Missouri, Minnesota, and throughout the Northeast.

 

Shahn’s work is collected and held in both public and private collections across the U.S. including The Colby College Museum of Art, the Walker Art Museum at Bowdoin College, The Farnsworth Art Museum, Union Carbide and Southland Corporations, the New Jersey State Museum, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, in Washington, DC.

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"I have  lived in rural Maine for many years. This fact seems crucial to me in trying to describe who I am and what my art is all about. I feel that the isolation from the 'art world' and from current trends in art has had both good and bad effects. On one hand, I’m more than glad to be free of the dictates of style and of the marketplace. I like my ideas to develop at their own pace. I love growing my garden, tending my fires, picking wild mushrooms, etc., etc.

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At the same time, I feel fortunate to be part of a loose group of artists scattered around in the boondocks who have evolved in many different ways, sometimes overlapping with current ideas floating around the “big city”, sometimes veering off in crazy and unexpected directions. The artists that I’ve come to know here have been a constant source of inspiration to me.

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On the other hand, I used to live in NYC. So I have some idea about what I’m missing by choosing to live here. I’m sure that if I still lived in the city, I would be inspired by much of the art being done there.

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Much of my art is inspired by political events, but it’s not political art is the sense of trying to move people into action. I think of myself more as a witness. Mythology has always been a subject for painters. I’ve come to think of the news as our contemporary mythology. (That doesn’t mean that it isn’t the truth.) It comprises a set of stories that are culturally shared by most of us.

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Thus, if I name an abstract painting 'Katrina,' I have offered a reference point, a point of entry. Hopefully, my abstract expressions and impressions will then have greater meaning for people. I hope to leave behind me some record of how it felt to have lived through these times. I hope to 'bear witness'."