Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sharon Shapiro. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Sharon, thanks for joining us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?
I think about this reasonably often! I have moments when it would be easier to be something else or do something else for work. But the truth is, I’m just not made that way. That doesn’t mean I don’t sometimes envy how some people can live perfectly whole and happy lives without making art. It is challenging to sustain a life of making art- not just the financial part, but finding a life partner who can emotionally support you being an artist. Most artists are, to some degree, self-absorbed. I used to not like that label, but it’s pretty accurate. It doesn’t mean selfish; you can be generous and self-absorbed. It just means that you are preoccupied with your own thoughts and interests. But as much as it sometimes seems appealing to go to work at a more conventional job and come home and really get away from work or go on a vacation and get away from thinking about work, I know it’s impossible for how I’m wired. Painting is how I connect to my deepest self and to others.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I’m a visual artist based in Charlottesville, Virginia, working primarily in oil paint, watercolor, and collage. I’ve been drawing since I was young, and by the time I was a junior in high school, I knew I wanted to pursue something creative. I grew up sketching the mannequins in my father’s clothing store and copying illustrations from Women’s Wear Daily, aka “the Bible of fashion” magazines. I started art school to become a fashion illustrator but quickly realized I wanted to paint instead while taking my first oil painting class. I was hooked.
After I graduated from the Atlanta College of Art in the early 90’s, I began showing my work and have been ever since. It hasn’t always been a smooth road- for one thing, I was a single mom for many years- but when I look back, I am proud and amazed that I’ve been doing this for thirty years.
I’ve always painted figures, which stems from my interest in the conflict between the inner and outer lives of human experience, between a person’s placid exterior and their churning, riotous core. For the last several years, I’ve been focused on depicting young women in the liminal state between adolescence and adulthood, between arriving and leaving.
My painting process is layered: I begin with staged photographs of young women, which I alter and recompose through collage. I then create paintings based on these reordered compositions. I make curiously discordant scenes that interfere with the viewer’s assumptions of the women I depict. Superficial beauty serves as an invitation to look more closely, revealing cracks in the artifice, obscured narratives, and hidden meanings.
Color is a powerful conveyor of meaning. I love hot pinks and reds because of their content concerning femininity and feminism. Still, they are also a way for me to address the climate crisis we are facing: deep red weather maps, raging forest fires, and record-setting heat waves all bring to mind these warm hues. My complex and layered representations of women call into question the existing systems that aren’t working, including the climate crisis.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I was in summer school in Florence, Italy, when I was twenty years old, after my third year at Virginia Commonwealth University. I planned on moving to California in the fall, where I would attend the California Institute of the Arts. This was my dream come true: going to that school and living on the West Coast. But that dream was interrupted abruptly when my father had a sudden heart attack and died. I had to immediately fly back home to West Virginia to plan his funeral (my parents were long divorced, and I was the only child), and it was all so surreal. He had just taken me to the airport two weeks earlier to catch my flight to Italy. I was in total shock. As if that weren’t enough, I found out a couple of days later that I had to take over his business- like the expression “who died and left you boss?” – that was me. It was insane, but he died without a will, and I was the sole heir. I stepped into his shoes for a year until I could get out from under it by going out of business, which was also crazy. During that year, I learned how genuinely kind people could be, and I also realized that not everyone around me was trustworthy. Every day, I had to tell a salesperson or a customer who called the store that he had died, and I didn’t even have time to process it. But I learned I had grit that I never knew I had, and I had to grow up, literally overnight. One of the last things my dad said to me was that he never thought his child would be an artist but that it made him really happy.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The biggest reward for me is in the making. Nothing is better than feeling excited about something I’m working on and leaning into that magical space where things are happening. It feels right, almost like something more significant is guiding me. Being enthusiastic is an underrated state of being, and making art involves much of it.
Experimentation is another gratifying thing about being an artist. It’s essential to continue to experiment and to fail miserably sometimes. Cultivating a sense of awe and wonder at what is possible and letting the work reveal itself. There are other enriching parts. I love knowing so many artists, whether in real life or online. I greatly respect people who center their lives around art in any form. Many non-artists believe it’s mostly about talent, and that’s a falsehood. It is more about dedication and faith—the faith in something bigger than we are.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sharonshapiro.com
- Instagram: @sharonshapiro
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/iXOW3AQlE98?si=t-M7e9IRdepdjQ7w
Image Credits
Sarah Cramer Shields Greg Staley