Lenore Chinn

Who is Lenore Chinn?

Lenore Chinn is an American realist painter. She was born in San Francisco, California in the United States. Her father was a mathematician. Both her mother and father were raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Chinn's taught their children traditional Cantonese and American culture. When Chinn was two years old, her family moved to the Richmond District of San Francisco. The Chinn family was one of the first Chinese-American's to move to the area. Because of their position as a minority in a primarily Caucasian area, the family taught the children a lot about Chinese stereotypes. These teachings would influence Chinn's artwork. Today, Chinese is the Richmond's largest ethnic group.

Chinn received her associate degree in advertising art and design in 1970 from the City College of San Francisco. In 1972 she earned her Bachelor of Arts from San Francisco State College in sociology. Chinn moved to the Castro District in the 1980s and became active in activist groups, including the Harvey Milk Club. As the AIDS epidemic impacted her life, she started painting portraits of people in the district. Chinn co-founded the Queer Cultural Center.