About

Izzy Shinn is a Twin-Cities-based printmaker and comic artist specializing in intaglio etching and ink illustration, having earned their Bachelors of Fine Arts from the University of Minnesota.

I create scenes that offer glimpses into a greater implied history or story by combining comic elements and intaglio printing methods . I explore two modes through this practice: one based in folkloric disciplines and the construction of genre fiction, the other based in butch lesbian history tied intimately with myself and my own experiences. These personal ties are showcased through characters and archetypes, exploring the sexual and social stigmatization of women, the body, and the queer subject— all while influenced by the more cerebral and academic instincts of my practice. 

These two aspects of my work are utilized both to complement each other and function independently.  I ultimately construct extratemporal images that incorporate and merge visuals derived from 14th-century illuminated manuscripts, late 20th-century lesbian archival materials, and my own contemporary and stylized method of illustration. Further historical interplay continues as a throughline in my work as I create false historical objects, memories, and captured figures, relating to a nostalgia that connects cultural understandings of storytelling with archive. Fundamentally, my work centers on relationships of the self, the other, and the world, mediating on fabricated folklore, history, and the subsequent interpersonalities of things or people that do not exist—but perhaps could.