Children are not born with a unified sense of self. They are, however, born with an innate ability to detect when they are being harmed. When they are faced at early stages of development with overwhelming or life threatening experiences, especially at the hands of caregivers, the normal integrated function of safe attachment is impossible and so a disordered and non-integrated, or dissociative response results.
My relationship to my body is the result of such a disordered process. I have never really fully inhabited it.
The figures in my work represent aspects of myself not yet integrated into a working whole of personality. They each have their experience of the world, relationships to each other, and feelings about what is essentially a shared body. For most of them the body is a danger zone, it is enemy territory. Entering it is a huge risk.
Our trajectories should lead towards cohesiveness and healing. The brain wants to repair itself; the heart desires more than anything else, safe, intimate attachment. I feel that want daily, with an almost unspeakable acuteness, but I haven't managed to overcome my dissociation. So you see in my work the only place where it feels safe to inhabit the body. You see me there, in my varied incarnations, looking back at you, the viewer. I am as vulnerable on paper and canvas as it is possible for me to be.
I have an extraordinary personal history, the details of which are almost guaranteed to invite incredulity. I am a survivor of torture and medical experimentation, beginning in childhood, both private and tax-funded. By exhibiting my artwork, I hope to raise awareness about these ongoing, yet widely unexposed human rights abuses committed against children and adults here in the US and other Western nations.
In service of this goal, in 2010, I intentionally created an additional alter ego named DIDiva. As a public persona, she is designed to help combat the stigma and ignorance surrounding responses to trauma such as dissociative conditions, but more specifically, to challenge the negatively sensationalized caricature of Dissociative Identity Disorder popularized by Hollywood and the media. DIDiva has served me well as a flamboyant Mistress of Ceremonies and hostess during recent showings of my artwork. She also holds forth at DIDiva.com, an informational website about DID.
There is a great deal of revealing biographical information on the Franklin & Madeline show pages. I also maintain a personal, activist site at LynnsArt.net
Education
2002 Atelier Program, Seattle Academy of Fine Art, Seattle, WA.
1987 BFA, Industrial Design, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, IL.
1981 School of Art, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
Solo Exhibits
2011
"Revenant Limbs", Trabant, Seattle.
"DIDiva & The Mirror Looks", CoCA Seattle.
2010
"DIDiva & The Mad Machines", Corridor Gallery.
2009
"Program", Form/Space Atelier.
2008
"Harlow Monkey", Form/Space Atelier.
2006
"Summer Clearance", Pioneer Square Saloon, Seattle, WA.
"Shattered", See Sound Lounge, Seattle, WA.
2005
Mnemonic Gallery, Seattle WA.
Selected Group Exhibits
2012
Artist Trust 25th Annual Auction, Seattle.
2011
"10 x 10 x 10 x Tieton" Juried exhibit, Tieton, WA
2010
"5th Annual Outsider Art in The Hamptons", Galerie BelAge, Westhampton Beach, NY.
"The Body Altered" Artsites Gallery, Riverhead, NY.
"2nd Annual International Inivtationl" Ouch My Eye Gallery, Seattle, WA
2009
City Hostel Seattle, room #301.
2008
"Breaking the Walls of Bias (3)", Galerie BelAge, Westhampton Beach, NY, May 17-June 30.
PONCHO Invitational Fine Art Auction.
Canvas Gallery, Pioneer Square.
2007
"Franklin & Madeline", Collaborative art project with James Cicatko, Ouch My Eye Gallery.
"Henry Bash", Henry Art Gallery.
2006
"Think Inside The Box", OK Hotel
"Breaking the Walls of Bias", Trisha’s Gallery, Long Island, NY.
"The Beat Salon", Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA.
"Noise for the Needy", Project 108, Seattle, WA.
2005
Seattle University Human Rights Film and Art Festival. Seattle, WA.
The 8th International Festival de Art Singulier. Roquevaire, Provence, France.
2004
Seattle University Human Rights Film and Art Festival. Seattle, WA.
2002
"Breaking the Walls of Bias", Hofstra Museum, Hofstra University, Long Island, NY.
1998
"Whispers '98", Honorable Mention. Gallery on The Rim, San Francisco, CA.
1992
"Silent No More", Index Gallery, Vancouver, WA.
"Silent No More", The Art Gym, Marylhurst, OR.
1991
"Silent No More" Bumbershoot, Seattle, WA.
"The Great Earth Factory Show", Installation, Atlanta, GA.
1990
"No More Secrets", Seven Stages Performing Arts Center, Atlanta, GA.
Selected Bibliography
2006 Tantra Bensko, “Interview with Lynn Schirmer” Mad Hatter’s Review, October.
2002 Edward Gomez, “Art Against The Odds: Creativity as Salve for Trauma” New York Times, July 10.
Edward Gomez, “Raw Reviews” Raw Vision #40, Fall 2002, p. 64.
1993 Eve Ensler and Stacey Schrader, Editors, Central Park, New York, #22, Spring, pp. 94,151.
Professional – Curatorial
Curator of Corridor Gallery, Tashiro Kaplan Building, Seattle, WA.
2004 – 2009.
Supervisor of Curatorial Interns: Angle Gallery, Tashiro Kaplan building. 2005 – 2009.
Curator of Tell! Nine artists' work on child sexual abuse. Included a community art/participationproject,reference section, a performance, and a series of panel discussions. Wonderful World of Art, Seattle, WA. 1993.
Presentations
2010
“Art & Activism: Finding Effective Ways to Tell”, The 2010 Annual SMART Conference, Windsor Locks, CT.
“Art & Activism: What The Public Sees”, Webinar for Survivorship.
2006
“DID System Function”, Lecture and slide show. The 2006 Annual SMART Conference, Windsor Locks, CT.
2005
“Non-State Actor Torture and Tax-funded Medical Experimentation in the US”. Seattle University Human Rights Film and Art Festival. Seattle, WA.
2004
“Art As Evidence: A Recovery Retrospective”, Slide show. The 2004 Annual SMART Conference, Windsor Locks, CT.
“Child Torture and Medical Experimentation in the US”. Seattle University Human Rights Film and Art Festival. Seattle, WA.