Gloria Steinem said, “Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel like I should be doing something else.” I feel that way about making art. My work gives me great satisfaction. It’s a compulsion and I am obliged to give in.

Like a writer, I edit, arrange, and am quite conscientious about the choices I make, organizing the various parts into a thoughtfully-conceived whole. My works are an aesthetic marriage of materials, techniques, ideas, and associations that ultimately act as instruments for provoking thought. They are not stories, however, but rather forums for posing questions or perhaps making suggestions. They approach the familiar through the unfamiliar. They are accessible but not obvious, and they are meant to entice.

My works, be they sculptures, paintings, or prints, are ordered, often symmetrical, and aesthetically and conceptually composed. In each, I aim at challenging and elevating traditional materials and methods of production—process is key. By mingling traditional approaches to sculpture and painting with man-made and found objects, I invite viewers to reconsider assumptions about how and from what art should be made. I employ found objects that have a recognized history or function, many of which are mass-produced, and I strive to propose integrity in the ordinary objects or discarded things that populate everyday life.

I also seek to establish relationships with the objects and materials I choose, while also creating connections within the works themselves. At the same time, I offer ironic juxtapositions and play on associations the individual viewer may have. My works attempt to engender an emotive resonance while bringing up issues of industry, domesticity, identity, memory, and the human condition.

In each work, I pay close attention to detail and craftsmanship and utilize time as a sculptural element just as I do steel, clay, or thread. With every material or found object I use and each technique I apply, there is a sense of nostalgia, though the works also seem timeless. My works speak both to the past and of regeneration. They make no claims, but merely pose possibilities, and they give me charge to make more.

Stacey R. Chinn, 2007