Sherry Wolf, Nature’s Array, Ceramic and acrylic paint/2019
“More Beautiful and Amazing” Seton Gallery exhibition 2019-2020
Seton thought of nature as a mosaic, an infinity of interconnected pieces. Sherry Wolf took him at his word in creating her piece for the More Beautiful and Amazing show. Made of fired and painted clay, the animals and the sun/life energy background were created separately, then joined together for the final composition. “I find nature so amazing, because everything fits together so neatly,” Sherry told me. Until it doesn’t (due to human interference), we both agreed. Seton was being nostalgic in his quote, looking to the pre-European past in North America as paradise. Maybe we will learn enough to keep what is left of that paradise.
Sherry Wolf and Creativity
I enjoy the many facets of creating artwork. I start with an idea and let the piece take the lead. I never really know where it will end up.
Born in New York City and raised in the suburbs of Los Angeles, I never felt like I was home. The mountains were where I found peace.
Art has always been an important part of my life. After several false starts I finally obtained my Masters of Art in Metal and Wood from California State University, Northridge at the age of 37, but continued with my bookkeeping and tax business until moving to New Mexico in 2003.
I have worked in many mediums. First was metal and jewelry, but they started to seem too limiting so I explored wood and woodworking, always pushing the materials in ways they were not commonly used. I didn’t want to be limited by what I didn’t know. I kept looking for new processes and materials. I found cement and then on to welding, but a back injury forced me to seek lighter, less demanding materials.
I am still exploring and innovating with new (to me) media such as paper, embossed metal, clay and acrylic paint. I feel my artwork today is a culmination and a result of all that has come before.
Now, with my husband, Steve Knight, we are living in Santa Fe, NM. I am enjoying the mountains and the freedom to be who I was always meant to be.
Ernest Thompson Seton on the History of Nature
There was once a great mosaic, constructed of precious stones, jewels, and gold, exquisite in workmanship, full of history, and setting forth the laws of life, well-being and joy. That mosaic was broken, scattered, and lost. No one knows exactly what it was like. But wonderful morsels are picked up from time to time in the dustbins, in the woods, on the highway, in the dens of animals, in the minds of men, in the dreams of children. (Lives of Game Animals, Vol. 1 Preface, 1925)
(Nature’s Array, copyright Sherry Wolf, used by permission.)