THE ART I SHAPE & THAT SHAPES ME
ARTIST STATEMENT
My artwork grounds me in this world. It is how I engage with the people, places, and things that surround me. “Creativity is the encounter of the intensely conscious human being with his or her world.” That awareness, and a willingness to reinterpret experience, requires ongoing commitment. Making is a way of understanding, reflecting, and responding to the time in which I live.
I work across a range of materials, embracing a “Jill of all trades” approach rather than limiting myself to a single medium. Exploring the possibilities within different processes creates a more challenging and rewarding experience in the studio, and that sense of discovery carries through in the work.
Process is central. By combining traditional approaches to sculpture and painting with found and manufactured objects, the work questions how and from what art can be made. Many of these materials carry a prior history or function, often mass-produced or overlooked. Recontextualizing them allows the ordinary, and even the discarded, to take on a new sense of presence and integrity.
The work brings together materials, techniques, and ideas in ways that invite closer attention and reflection. It is meant to be accessible without being obvious, to draw people in while leaving space for interpretation. Making is both grounding and necessary, a continual return to experience and a reason to keep going.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
STACEY R. CHINN-HART (Lexington, KY) is a visual artist, designer, and educator whose work spans sculpture, painting, ceramics, jewelry, and design. She earned her MFA from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (1998) and her BFA from the University of Kentucky (1994).
Her work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions at the local, regional, and national levels, and has been featured in Sculpture and FiberArts magazines, as well as the ArtNow Gallery Guide (Chicago/Midwest).
In addition to her studio practice, she has worked extensively in arts education and leadership, serving as a mentor, curator, gallery director, juror, and public speaker. She has held adjunct faculty positions at the University of Kentucky, Georgetown College, Eastern Kentucky University, and Bluegrass Community and Technical College, and has taught at the Community Arts Center (Danville, KY), the Living Arts and Science Center, and Redwood Cooperative School.
She is the former owner of MADEky, a working studio and retail gallery in Lexington’s Historic Distillery District. Her professional experience also includes work as a graphic designer for Florida Tile and Big Ass Fans.
She currently works as a freelance designer while developing Lil Crow, a line of functional ceramics and contemporary jewelry.
