Today we’d like to introduce you to Sherri Silverman.
Hi Sherri, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’m a self-taught artist with a doctorate in Creativity, Art, & the Sacred and Application of Asian Concepts. Fifty years of meditation practice informs my energy and approach to art. I explore inner being, consciousness, beauty, and spirituality in paintings, pastels, photography, and mixed media art that evokes happiness, wonder, serenity, and an expansive feeling of sacred space. My work is gestural and abstract.
My first strong memory is of insisting when I was five years old that the potential buyers of my family’s Atlanta house see the paintings I had done in the back of my closet.
I never took studio art courses in college. I took a couple of art courses at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education many years ago. In 2015, I received the annual Tip Coleman award to attend Judith Kruger’s Nihonga & Beyond: Japanese Mineral Pigment Painting workshop.
My studio was in Santa Fe, NM for almost thirty years. I’ve also lived in Santa Barbara and the west side of LA. In 2016, I moved to Marin County and love it. My studio is nestled against redwoods and California bay laurel trees. I’m greatly inspired by nature, especially the ocean. I grew up on Florida beaches and am happy to live close to the Pacific Ocean now. I spend time at the beach as much as I can, breathing in the fresh prana in the air, picking up sand dollars and rocks, watching the waves, and taking photographs.
My artwork is on permanent display in the New Mexico Capitol Art Collection in the State Capitol in Santa Fe, just outside the Senate chambers. Private and corporate collections include Fidelity Investment, Verizon, and LANB/Enterprise Bank. Juried group exhibitions include the Bolinas Museum, Sonoma Museum of Visual Art, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Pensacola Museum of Art, and TEDxMARIN. Solo shows have taken place in Florida, Colorado, and New Mexico. My pastel paintings were selected for inclusion for the 2006 book 100 Artists of the Southwest. I’ve been an Artist in Residence at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art and at the Cambridge Oakland Artist Residency Program.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There are always challenges in life. Focus on what you can do, not what you can’t do.
I dream of a much larger studio where I can work on much larger paintings.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My art is an exercise in trust. It flows out step by step, conveying my response to the essence of nature and consciousness. I created my early work, colorful geometric abstractions and Southwest and Moroccan imaginary landscapes with archetypal images in pastels on paper. In 2014, I moved into a looser, more lyrical, gestural abstraction that is primarily non-representational with floral/botanical images, calligraphic elements, and a continuation of floating motifs in gouache on paper and panel. These paintings convey my continued interest in subtle levels of creation, meditation states, and the capturing of the essence and energy of nature rather than its more exact duplication. I’m interested in expressing the unseen source of creativity and this world, its beauty, wonder, and radiance.
More reveals itself in the studio as whatever emerges, frequently as a surprise.
My next juried group show is the Hardly Strictly Mini Biennial Exhibition at the Bolinas Museum, November 18-December 31.
Current work is available through my website https://sherrisilverman.com and galleries happening soon. My twentieth century art is represented by Transcendence Design:
My Art for Sacred Space pastel paintings are available through https://
Inner Temple limited edition art prints are available through https://
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
I’ve been fortunate to have many artist friends who have inspired me and taught me stuff that has helped my career. I like being generous and helping others too.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sherrisilverman.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/sherrisilvermanstudio
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/SherriSilvermanStudio
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2PB3wt8ASc
- Other: https://threads.net/sherrisilvermanstudio and https://pinterest.com/sherrisilverman
Image Credits
photos of Sherri: Kimberly Wright all other images courtesy of the artist
