ARTIST MEMBER
6″ x 6″x 1″ (closed h x w x d) and 6″ x 6″ x 30″ (open)
paper, Dura-Lar, colored pencils
6x 10x 3.25 inches (Closed) 6x 10x 10 inches (Open)
paper, dura-lar, watercolor, glass beads, suede faux leather
3.5″ x 4.75″ x 2″ (closed) and 3.5″ x 4.75″ x 11″ (Open)
Wildflower cyanotypes, waxed thread, ink, paper, driftwood from the Yellowstone River
BIO:
Delaney MeSun Shin is an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores the intersections of cultural identity, folklore, ecology and place. Drawing on her Korean-American heritage and experiences in the American landscape, she brings together stories, imagery and symbols from diverse cultural traditions to explore how narratives shift across generations, environments and personal experience.
Working across drawing, painting, cut paper, artist books and installation, Delaney is particularly interested in the relationship between storytelling and the natural world. Flora, fauna, landscapes and figures drawn from folklore and mythology recur throughout her practice, often creating imagined spaces where cultural histories and contemporary environments overlap. Her material investigations frequently center on paper, which she cuts, layers, binds and transforms to create both two- and three-dimensional works.
Shin earned her Master of Fine Arts in Two-Dimensional Studies with a concentration in painting from Bowling Green State University and her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Stout, where she specialized in drawing and minored in art history. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Visual Arts at Francis Marion University in Florence, South Carolina, where she teaches drawing and design.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
“Back when tigers smoked the pipe” is a phrase my grandparents are just as familiar with as I am with “Once upon a time.” These beginnings invite us into worlds where animals speak, landscapes hold memory, and the boundary between the real and imagined becomes less certain. I have always been drawn to books as places where these worlds can be held, revisited, and carried with us. My work grows from this love of books and storytelling, using paper and the book form to collect and reinterpret the places I experience, the things I observe, and the stories I learn.
Growing up between Korean and American cultures, I became interested in how stories travel across generations, cultures, and landscapes. Folklore and mythology exist alongside my own experiences of place, such as encountering an animal, observing unfamiliar plant life, or learning the history and stories connected to a landscape. Rather than retelling these stories exactly as I receive them, I allow them to shift through my own observations and experiences.
Books provide a structure for bringing these fragments together. Like moving through a landscape, a book asks the viewer to discover one image, layer, or moment at a time. Through hand-cut paper, folding, layering, printing, and binding, I create dimensional environments where pages conceal and reveal information. Tunnel books further transform landscapes into spaces that can be visually entered and explored.
Within these constructed worlds, recognizable flora and fauna mingle with figures drawn from folklore, mythology, and personal experience. I think of these works as imagined field guides, archives, and storybooks, places where observation and mythology can coexist. By gathering fragments of landscape, memory, folklore, and lived experience, I create new narratives that consider how places become stories and how those stories change as we carry them with us.