Sharon has been creating objects of beauty and interest for as long as she can remember.  While she is most satisfied when creating, it still surprises and inspires her to be called an “artist”. She remembers what a shock it was the first time someone gave her money for one of her creations.  Her fish benches first appeared at Silver Creek Outfitters in 1992, a year after she moved to Ketchum from Ventura County, California.  In addition to making fish benches, she refinished and decorated furniture, and hand-made soaps and lotions.  Prior to Green Antelope Gallery, she showed her work at Strega Gallery in Ketchum and is a regular participant in the Ketchum Art Fair.

Sharon generally doesn’t start a piece of art with an end product in mind.  Instead, she finds an object of interest, like an old piece of wood, and wonders what could be done with it.  She finds that when she tries to work toward a specific end, the work takes on a life of its own and transforms into something else through the process.  Inspired by the “power of creation”, making art is more play to her than “work”.

While largely self-taught, Sharon has also learned from various classes and workshops over the years.  In 2002, she took her first watercolor course from Kathleen Mardian.  Later that year, she traveled to the south of France with Kim Howard and a group of fellow students for a watercolor workshop.  She returned to France to live in 2004 and, while there, studied various mediums at Casa Firenze.  Her experience in France continues to have a strong influence on her art—many found objects she carted home continue to appear in her work, including antique keys, clocks, journals, prescriptions, ledgers and other interesting items unearthed in flea markets and other shops.  In 2008/9, she studied Fine Art & Sculpture at the Academy of Art in the Bay Area.

While some of her pieces are simply meant to be visually interesting and some have deeper meanings, it is important to Sharon not to tell people what to think about them—“It’s about giving people space to think, the opportunity to see something themselves and figure it out.”

She lives and creates in her studios in Ketchum, Idaho and Benicia, California, with her three sons Tucker, Wyatt, and Brody, and her husband Harry.

*For more information or to view Sharon’s work, go to www.greenantelope.net, or call the gallery at (208) 788-2353.