Jay Shinn | Cameo 1, 2018

Hi, my name is Jay Shinn. I knew since the age of seven I wanted to be an artist. I attained a BFA in painting from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1982, and I also attended the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in Maine. I now live and work between both Dallas and New York. Over the last few years, I've spent a considerable amount of time in Berlin, Germany. It was in Berlin in 2010 when I started working with neon. My piece here in the restaurant is called Cameo. This title is a reference to a neon clock that was in the Cameo Theater in the small town of Magnolia, Arkansas, where I grew up. This was an impressionable clock made of neon using these same colors of blue and pink. This work can also be seen as a beacon to theatre patrons from the Alley Theatre across the street. It is meant to serve as a sense of place and nostalgia, same as that neon clock at the Cameo Theater back in Arkansas did. I work in both two and three dimensions, using several materials to express an idea. This work combines the use of several materials to create a two-dimensional image viewed much like painting or drawing. The neon tubes have been blacked out, with the exception of a fine line of light on the backside, which is then reflected in a mirror. This creates a holographic effect when seen through the frosted plexiglass vitrine. An important part of my work deals with visually transforming materials from what they typically are, hopefully challenging the viewer to question what they're actually seeing. Thank you for taking your time to hear about my work. I hope you have the time to hear about the rest of the art here at The Lancaster.