Shana Lahr

A Lounge to view Art

In Downtown Jersey City Power Art District

Shana Shay

Originally from St. Cloud, Minnesota, she moved to the east coast with a grant from the Central Minnesota Arts Board. She attended Johnson and Wales in Providence, RI getting her associates degree in fashion merchandising. Itching to move to the Big Apple, she was accepted into the fashion design program at FIT. But once she got to FIT, they tried to make her sew. Sweat shop training wasn't what she had in mind. She was seduced by the city...needless to say, not on the dean's list.

Around this time, she started painting and bartending. Her painting style is a reaction to her education in fashion. Her characters are inspired by NYC nightlife; not models on a catwalk, but the real people she have served drinks to as a bartender. She is far more interested in representing the slightly self-doubting lot of us who don't live in the pages of a fashion magazine. Her brushes and canvas have taken a back seat to Photoshop and Illustrator in the past few years, but she do still love to paint.