26 - Sharon Chinen, Tete a Tete

Sharon Chinen (American) "Tete a Tete"

Paper mache, 11 inches

Sharon Chinen Ingle is a sculptor who has exhibited extensively in the Bay Area and beyond. Her exhibitions have included the San Diego Museum of Art, the San Jose Museum of Art, the Euphrat Museum of Art in Cupertino, CA, the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, CA, and the Contemporary Museum at First Hawaii Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. She was awarded an Arts Council / Santa Clara County Artist Fellowship and was a resident at Djerassi Foundation and at the Joshua Tree National Park. Sharon Chinen was born on Maui, Hawaii. She received an MFA from San Jose State University.

Nature as form is Sharon Chinen's guiding motif. Using papier mache, paint, wax, wire, branches, and other natural and non-natural materials, Chinen creates earthy, organic objects which look at first glance as though they might have been found in a forest or field. Some appear ready to burst with mysterious new life; others infer that a different stage of life, that of decay, has set in. Still others feel light and airy, suggestive of another dimension altogether. Sharing a reverence for nature's cycles, these works poetically evoke and honor the essential connection between human beings and the natural world.