Yhanna Coffin
Acrylic and mixed media
7 Maplewood Ave.
Gloucester, MA 01930
978-281-4808
www.yhanna.com
yhannac@comcast.net
Yhanna Coffin began her artist career as a functional potter. Working at a wheel soon evolved into building clay sculpture. As she worked more and more as a sculptor she realized she wanted art training so she went to the Boston Museum School of Art where she received a diploma. After the Museum school she moved to New York City and attended Hunter College where she received an MFA in sculpture. She became an assistant for Judy Pfaff, a sculptor, for a year and then took over one of Judy's studios. All the time that she was working as a sculpture she was also painting, usually on paper. The paintings were bold and filled with feeling. What interested her was to be able to have what she was feeling come through as powerfully and uncensored as possible. One day Yhanna was walking to the subway in NYC and passed a fruit stand. There she saw a pile of oranges and it was as if she had never seen them before. Her passion for color was awakened then and continues to this day. There is often a question she is asking as she is painting. She usually works in a series. In her most recent work, "Prayer Cycle" she was asking, "I am told that we are held, even in the most difficult painful hard times." So my question is, "Is that true? If it is true, will it hold if you go all the way into the depths of the pain, can it hold?"
Still Holding
Acrylic on canvas, 47" x 48"
All That Shatters Does Not Break
Acryllic on paper, 52" x 60"