ABOUT SHARRON | Mysite

About Sharron

Welcome to my website! Let me tell you a little about myself:

I have been an practicing, exhibiting artist and art educator for most of my adult life. Though primarily an painter, I have a master's degree in sculpture, and often like to combine the two disciplines. My subject matter has been diverse throughout my career, ranging from figurative/visionary paintings and portraiture, figurative sculpture and assemblage sculpture "environments", to subtly abstracted, 2-D and 3-D (relief) landscapes paintings. The thing that ties all of my work together, though, I think, is a sort of "spiritual sensuality" that I try to imbue them with...

My acrylic textured landscapes, which I like to call "LANDSTRACTS", were inspired by my move to the Southwest over ten years ago. Slightly abstracted with rock-like textured surfaces, the resulting paintings appear to focus on the sheer visual and tactile qualities of experience. Somehow, however, they also exude an undeniably anthropomorphic feeling to me: close-ups of rocks, trees, water, twigs, caves, interestingly arranged, in an emotive relationship with each other and the light in which they bathe. The rich textures I use, the heightened colors, the 3-D bas relief surfaces, and often the inclusion of rocks and branches, make the experience of viewing my paintings quite visceral!

I sometimes think this intense physicality of the natural world can be a potential distraction, though, from the spiritual aspect of our experience out in Nature, so I like to compose little "routes of escape" in many of my paintings: caves, dark places, peeks of sky and reflections – visual "shelterings" from this intensely physical plane I am portraying. In the end, what I want to achieve is a vision of nature that is phenomenal, personal, and yet spiritual.

In my portraits and visionary figurative work I also want to tell a visual story about the experience of these people and their surroundings. The style is naturalistic (a slightly stylized type of realism), which allows for a little more artistic license and creativity when depicting them!

You can see the acrylic and mixed media landscape paintings on the page titled

"Landstracts". The Portraits and Visionary Paintings are on a separate page. I also

do commission work - portraits and other types of figurative work in acrylic. Write

me if you are interested in commissioning a painting or in purchasing a pre-existing

painting from my website. I also always appreciate feedback about my work, so

please write me at sharronvporter@gmail.com!

Bio

Sharron Vincent Porter is an award-winning signature artist and is included in an anthology written and edited by art critic, Louise Sheldon MacDonald, entitled Sedona's Best Artists. She has served on the Board of Trustees for the Fine Art Museum of Sedona (formerly the Sedona Art Museum) supporting the building and development of an art museum for the Verde Valley in Sedona; she is a member of the Sedona Arts Center and the Sedona Visual Artists Coalition; she formerly served as President of the Sedona Area Guild of Artists (SAGA), and served on the Sedona Visual Artists Coalition Board. Porter has also donated her time being an art mentor for Sedona youths over the years, teaching in local Sedona schools, and volunteering her time to Gardens for Humanity, teaching and helping to organize several of their fundraisers.

The artist holds a Bachelor's Degree in Art Education from the University of Illinois, a Master's Degree in Sculpture from Northern Illinois University, and has taken years of supplementary art and education classes in various disciplines. She has worked in nearly every visual art media in her role as a high school and middle school art instructor. Porter has been a member of galleries, cooperative galleries, and art centers in Chicago, Pennsylvania, Florida, Sedona, and Jerome, AZ and has shown her work in solo and group exhibitions all around the Chicago and Sedona areas. Exhibitions in Illinois have included venues such as The Chicago Cultural Center, The Art Institute of Chicago, Beacon Street Gallery (Hull House), Northwestern University, ARC Gallery, and assorted community art centers and colleges. Porter has shown locally around Sedona and Cottonwood AZ and in group shows throughout the Verde Valley, Flagstaff, and the Phoenix area.

Until its close in May of 2018, Sharron was a member of Gallery 527 in Jerome, Arizona. She has won many awards over the years, including Best of Shows, People’s Choices, and First Place in Category awards, and was recently juried into a statewide exhibition supporting the Verde River entitled “Visions of the Verde”, cosponsored by Yavapai College, az/HUMANITIES, Friends of the Verde River, and the Smithsonian Institute. She presently resides in Scottsdale, AZ, and is a Juried Member of the Sonoran Arts League in Cave Creek, where she shows regularly.

Porter also does commission work, specializing in Southwestern, semi-abstracted landscapes (“Landstracts”), Portraiture, Visionary Art, and "Harley" Portraits.