I am an artist, a researcher, and an art educator.  I am engaged in the process of visually describing my experiences as a woman in the 21st century.  In order to do this I sometimes look to the past for clues.  I often work with found photographs and objects that already embody a history.

I am driven to question the familiar, to look below the layers of the everyday.  I am interested in challenging the gendering and prescribed meanings of objects, language, and behavior.  By playing with these accepted cultural definitions, I hope to tease out our assumptions and to expand our potential for compassion and personal expression.  And sometimes, we just simply need to laugh at our serious selves.  In the spirit of a feminist paradigm I am searching out and toying with the accepted systems of power in a hopeful effort that I’ll stumble upon more balanced possibilities.

We all have stories to tell, stories that overlap and diverge.   My hope is that anyone who experiences my artwork finds their own permission to explore, question, and express their individual story.

Shara Hannah Finerman

2008