Artist on Paper |  Young Shin: Eclipsed by Convention: A Tapestry of Choices between JD and Art | Editorial on Art Yourself Atelier

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ARTIST: Young Shin

DATE: 2024.11

Eclipsed by Convention: A Tapestry of Choices between JD and Art

artist journey exploration, paper painting, artist success, art career transition, JD and art

From Legal Briefs to Brushstrokes

Image Provided by Young Shin

Image Provided by Young Shin

I currently work as a full-time artist, and I arrived here in a rather roundabout, circuitous way. For too long, despite my passion for painting, drawing, and making objects since my childhood, I could not muster enough courage to pursue visual art as a full-time career. Post college, I applied to several MFA programs and got accepted to a few, only to take what I thought was a sensible path at the time: enter law school. To be honest, I did enjoy certain aspects of learning the laws and learning how to apply them which was intellectually rigorous and rewarding; at the end of the day, however, I just knew that being a lawyer was not going to be fulfilling for someone like me whose propensity always leaned toward tactility, beauty, and visual art.
Image Provided by Young Shin

Image Provided by Young Shin

Post law school, in an earnest attempt to marry my passion with practicality, I went ahead and studied fashion design at Parsons. While it quenched my thirst for tactile work -- expressing through making beautiful objects by designing, draping, making patterns, and sewing -- creating wearable art wasn’t necessarily the same as making visual art. Making clothes involves an extensive amount of technicality and exactness, and I ultimately found that to be restricting and confining. While I appreciated a level of order and balance in the discipline of fashion design, I needed more freedom and fluidity in expressing myself that felt fully satisfying and right for me.

Looking back on my path overall, somehow the marriage of these seemingly incongruous fields was right for me as I find myself incorporating and utilizing skill sets and sentiments I’ve learned to embody along the way from both. For example, I often tap into the spirit and the technical aspect of clothing making in my current body of work -- down to utilizing the same physical tools from patternmaking. I also see that a certain level of severity and exactitude in my process was attained by the discipline of studying law. Also, as an artist, I find many skill sets from my law school years are incredibly helpful; not to mention my relief in the familiarity with legalese in reading through contracts involving transactions with selling, leasing, licensing, and consigning artwork.
Image Provided by Young Shin

Image Provided by Young Shin

Like many fellow artists, I tend to shy away from contracts and business decisions, but they are inseparable aspects to being an independent artist. All in all, I don’t think that my work would have taken the direction that it took without experiencing and embracing both the world of fashion and law. They are very much integral parts of my art practice today, and I couldn’t be happier.

As for my advice to those who are contemplating a career change to fine art, I can share something I wish I had known prior to entering this career full time.

I wish I had known about the extensive range of opportunities for artists that are widely available. In the past, I came to believe that an artist’s success predominantly depended on a narrow set of opportunities conferred by exclusive external forces such as galleries, critics, or institutions - to my own detriment, limiting my own growth and stifling me from available opportunities. It is true that the art world can be extremely exclusive, elusive, and competitive, leaving many talented individuals feeling discouraged and isolated; and because of this, it’s easy to internalize rejections and self-doubt one’s unique abilities and talents to contribute. However, in today’s digital age, artists have abundant and expansive opportunities that might not have been readily available in the past to help forge their own unique career paths such as online galleries and a considerable number of resources online. These digital spaces provide artists with opportunities to collaborate and showcase their works globally to limitless and diverse collectors. For example, at the onset of my career, two of my very first collectors came to purchase my pieces from Tokyo and Texas during the same week. Online exposure is particularly pivotal in an artist’s career development by enhancing much needed visibility and making meaningful connections with collectors and garnering their support. Lastly, what I wish I had known earlier in my career is working directly with interior designers and public art placement galleries/agencies. Collaborating and partnering with them, I find that there has been a steady stream of commissions as well as the reach to a niche clientele.
Image Provided by Young Shin

Image Provided by Young Shin

About Young Shin

Young makes abstract paintings with paper. At the core of her practice, she explores the concept of impermanence as it relates to life, and the beauty of such mercuriality and unpredictability embedded in the ­life form. Techniques and process are key to expressing her intention as she unearths the essence of the theme of ephemerality by peeling away colored paper that was first meticulously layered and copiously built up. She is inspired by this process of building and removing intricate layers in order to reveal what is underneath and between – birthing something entirely new from the ashes of destruction. In her body of work, melding her past experiences and passion together, Young combines elements from art, design, and craft.­

Young received her BA in Philosophy from Occidental College, JD from Loyola School of Law, and post graduate studies in Fashion Design from Parsons School of Design. Her paintings have been exhibited and placed by galleries and collectors throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles and Nashville.

We invite you to experience the online exhibition collaboration between Art Yourself Atelier and Young Shin, accessible through this link .