A large part of the interest of her work, for me at least, springs
from it's dynamic ambiguity. It both confirms and denies. What
we see in it is reluctance as well as candour. You may think you
know what the artist is saying, but there remains an element
of uncertainty. This is the reason why I think it is likely to retain
its interest much longer than the work of many of the painter's
contemporaries. It is not simply that it possesses a solid presence,
a physical durability that derives from the artist's choice of a
long-established method of creating images, which she has
adapted to the demands of her own time. It is also that there
is something in the imagery that draws us back, to look again.
Every time we look, the message is slightly different.
Edward Lucie-Smith, Shani Rhys James: The Black Cot, 2003,
Aberystwyth Arts Centre & Gomer Press, p. 41.
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