We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Christopher Sherry a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Christopher, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

If I could start over, what a wonderful thought. The thought makes me envious of those who start life with a ‘built-in’ ambition. They know, maybe even before they can talk, that they want to be a fireman. Then there are those who figure it out sometime before they graduate from high school or even college. Then, again, there are those of US who sort of fall into ‘something’. There were several careers I pursued before falling into art as a profession, (even now that is a hard phrase to say, professional artist).

I became an artist after I retired. I then took some informal workshops, and then, at 78, I spent three years full time at art ateliers.

Now to explain why I wish I had started earlier. One of the issues of learning later in life are the things we take for granted, such as: being able to read something and remember it, being able to stay up late to study, being able to enjoy the companionship of your colleagues into the wee hours, being untied to responsibilities that come as you age, Oh, but wait, there are the pleasures of senior learning: the new dimension of daily demands of projects, the support of siblings and great-grandkids, the new excitement of just waking up to a brand new challenge.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Going to college was a long process, ten years at nights. During the daytime I was blessed and was rescued from being a human adding machine to a computer programmer, then systems analyst, back in 1961, ( back in the day when folks thought I was making movies on tape, rather than actually data tapes.) Eventually, graduated, taught computer programming, then started architecture school, again at night. What a test – supportive wife, kids, renovating our home, work, and at last class.

Bottom line, I earned a masters degree from Georgia Institute of Technology, age 40.

Many years later, retired, and took a painting class. That was the beginning of a 15 year association with the Quinlan Visual Arts Center, Gainesville, Ga. That experience brought me to other art centers, and what started with a handful of students ended up with about 70 active students. It was a most exciting time in my life. At the moment, I am in the process of attempting to rebuild that experience here in Miami at the Miami International Fine Arts center.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

The creative mind has an unrestricted thirst to exist in the realm of creating. The process of creating is the end in itself. There isn’t a magical pyramid to climb, there isn’t that point that says ‘you have achieved the quest’. It’s a forever evolving fantasy. To the non-creative person, a goal is established. How else would one know they have reached the goal?

One of the mistaken concepts is that there is only a single sense of creativeness. We are all creative, but the so-called creative minded acknowledge their creativeness. They actually have physical proof of that creativity, the piece that hangs on the wall, the music that is played, the equation that proves x = 1, or the recipe that doesn’t overflow in the microwave.

So, perhaps, we should all recognize that there isn’t a ‘creative mind’, but recognize creativity comes in all sizes.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Creating things of beauty is the most exciting aspect of creating. The process of taking disjointed elements, combining them, and then producing something that has never existed before. The sense that this new compound exists as a result of a seed of a thought from my mind. There is no other sensation which comes close to that pure joy and excitement. Creating a baby, creating the design of a building, creating a vacation itinerary, or creating a sandcastle, these all share that sense of joy and excitement. There is nothing like it!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://paintingwithchris.com
• Instagram: christopher.sherry.52
• Facebook: christopher sherry

Image Credits

Self-Portrait, Christopher Sherry