SHANNON HYNES

Lily Loft Floral is the evolving creative practice of artist Shannon Hynes, rooted in a lifelong exploration of flowers as both subject and medium. Inspired by the light, space, and natural beauty of the American Southwest, her work translates an intuitive relationship with nature into expressive compositions of color and form.

Raised in Arizona and shaped by years in California before settling in Nevada, Hynes developed an early sensitivity to color, atmosphere, and emotional expression. She earned her degree in Visual Arts with an emphasis in Art History from the University of California, San Diego, where she studied under influential artists including Barbara Kruger and Kim MacConnel. Their teachings—along with the Pattern and Design movement—instilled in her a lasting appreciation for composition, surface, and visual harmony.
Her work is further informed by European masters such as Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, and Claude Monet, whose use of scale, color, and movement continues to resonate in her approach.

At the center of Hynes’ practice is the flower—revisited from childhood sketches to large-scale paintings and sculptural floral work. Rather than traditional still life, her compositions are expansive and expressive, guided more by feeling than formal arrangement. Working fluidly between painting and floristry, she approaches both as extensions of the same visual language.

The origins of Lily Loft Floral trace back to downtown Los Angeles, where Hynes lived and worked near the city’s flower markets. Immersed in an environment of constant color and abundance, she began translating her painterly sensibility into floral design—creating arrangements that feel intuitive, gestural, and alive.

Her aesthetic has also been shaped by over a decade in the rug and textile industry, where she worked closely with handcrafted pieces by internationally recognized designers including Alexander McQueen, Kelly Wearstler, and Paul Smith. This experience continues to inform her sensitivity to pattern, texture, and materiality, contributing to the layered quality of her work.

Hynes’ projects have included mural work for television and a large-scale collaboration with muralist Erik T. Burke, in which her floral compositions were translated into a monumental public installation in downtown Reno.

Today, Lily Loft Floral reflects an ongoing studio practice encompassing painting, floral work, and select printed pieces. It remains an evolving platform for Hynes’ exploration of living with color, form, and the quiet emotional resonance of flowers.

Hynes lives and works in Reno, Nevada with her family, where she continues to create “among the wildflowers.”