About
Learn More About SFA
Creating together full-time since late 2010, mother and son artist duo Linda and Theo Co-Founded Shinkle Fine Art, LLC in 2012. Theo’s younger brother, N. Douglas Shinkle, serves as a vital team member. SFA seeks to empower, energize, and enlighten visual art viewers through their work exploring existential connections as a means to unlocking potential.
Designed on the computer and executed by hand using workmen’s tools, their work utilizes novel elements from automotive, aviation and wood working fabrication influenced by the Detroit maker mentality. They blend hands-on traditional and developed techniques with modern technology creating the Metallaverse, a trinity of distinctive and unified works. All portmanteaus, our works are comprised of Metalagram, Metalamirror and Metalamix. This family of original works are categorized according to unique yet overlapping creative processes. The duo’s multi-sensory Installation, known as Metallaverse Experience, achieves immersion with lighting and sound. The duo continues to push the boundaries of art, science, and technology.
In 2017, the duo changed surname Shinkle spelling to Schinkel for their work. This original German spelling honors their familial ancestor, Karl Friedrich Schinkel. See more about Karl and his influence on the duo under Stories.
Mother Son Duo Create Art - WDIV Detroit
Biography
Artist duo Linda and Theodore, mother and son, explore existential existence as a means to unlocking potential. Linda, b. Detroit, MI (1953) and Theodore, b. Sylvania, OH (1986). While communicating through art since Theo’s birth, they began their art practice together in 2010.
Linda has a Bachelor of Arts from the Literature, Science & Arts College at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, and a Juris Doctor from the University of Toledo College of Law, Toledo, OH. Linda continued studying and creating while serving as General Counsel for privately held companies and as Director on Boards. Art studies include at Sorbonne, Paris, France; National Geographic in Sienna, Italy; National Geographic Around the World Photography Intensive; and Ox-Bow School of Art Residency, Saugatuck, MI. Linda has had gallery representation since 2004. She was published in “Style” and “Ambassador” magazines prior to creating as a duo. Linda received the 49th Distinguished Women’s Award from Northwood University, Midland, MI, in recognition of her artwork.
Theodore has a Bachelor of Arts in Cinema and Economics from Denison University, Granville, OH. Art studies include FAMU, Charles University Prague, Czech Republic, College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI, and Ox-Bow School of Art Residency, Saugatuck, MI. Theo worked in the film industry in Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta, and Detroit before creating as a duo. When traditional communication presented obstacles, Theo connected with the world through his art.
Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781-1841), the most prominent late 18th to mid 19th-century German artist, is a familial ancestor. Linda and Theo, at age six, attended the Chicago Institute of Art, Chicago, IL, the first USA Exhibition of Karl’s work. Prior to that time, Schinkel’s work resided behind the Iron Curtain. The fall of the Berlin Wall allowed for this seminal exhibition, greatly influencing Linda and young Theo. The duo names their art practice after this ancestor.
Linda and Theo are award-winning nationally and internationally, published numerous times, including in USA Today, A & E Documentary, Wall Street Journal, video made by the city of Detroit, MI, and multiple Detroit, MI and Jacksonville, FL print and electronic news. Recently selected one of the “Top 50 Emerging Artists” by “Art Business News” awards include the Lincoln Award for Best of Show at Beverly Hills Art Show, Beverly Hills, CA, and selected sole artists by The Carr Center to design and create yearlong collaborative Installation in Harmonie Park, Detroit MI. Individuals, businesses, hospitals, schools, and museums collect their artworks.
Artist Statement
Metalagram the Message
The artist duo’s medium, hands-on and technologically innovative, lives at the intersection of old-world skills and 21st-century technology. Art and science fuel imagination to create Mixed Media, known as Metalagram. Earth's third most naturally prevalent substance – aluminum – is used as their canvas. An exploration of multiverses forging connections to empower, energize, and enlighten lies at the core of Metalagram.
Viewers are nudged into a journey beyond superficial appearance. Canadian philosopher Marshal McLuhan stated, “The medium is the message.” A symbiotic relationship between art and message is embedded in this layered work. Hidden elements invite exploration as a means to resolving difficulties and differences and unlocking potential. Their work aims to unify connections through enlarging and challenging perspectives.
Noted physicist Brian Greene explains in “The Hidden Reality” that reality’s true nature may be part of a quilted multiverse, ours being among universes with varying features. Albert Einstein’s dying quest was to find an explanation to unify the universe and beyond. Metalagram works invite going beyond mere appearances. Metalagram work promotes unification among peoples, places, and beliefs. The duo shares a guide through their work akin to a map to buried treasure. Metalagram works are a link to messages revealed through this medium. These artworks are the product of a mother/son artist duo dedicated to unlocking potential.
Part of the duo’s inspiration arises from their varied paths in life, having studied, worked, and traveled on six continents. Dyslexia and communication challenges are multi-generational within the family. Theo, at an early age, qualified to learn Braille, but communicating through art, together with hard work, unlocked his potential. Linda had an untraditional history leading to this practice and believes every experience, failure, and triumph prepared her for this work. The duo believes this art practice chose them.
The duo has juxtaposed resilience and guidance from the universe. Art luminaries Van Gogh, Monet, Turner, Dali, Calder, Warhol, and Richter continue to inspire their practice. This duo's original art is embedded with a message promoting the resolution of differences. Metalagram encourages experiential existential connectivity, cessation of limits, and realization of potential.