Blog — Sharon Whitham

June 2024

It was an amazing winter and early spring in Mexico this year. I created a new body of work - and had my first solo exhibition in San Miguel de Allende. It was a great success. And now I have work showing year round at the 4Nidos Galleria there on calle Hidalgo in the Centro. While there I began to work out how I would create a project I had been researching and preparing for - for more than a year. I experimented with figuring out a way to create clothing out of my paper monotypes. I finally hit on the idea of paper patterns for clothes making and starting making templates - cutting out the shapes from my prints and piecing them together with matte medium and waxed thread. I then worked on how to display them - and rigged up a clothesline outside on my patio. The light and the shadows and the light breeze made it difficult to photograph - but really captured a natural beauty. The entire piece of 6 articles of clothing is an installation hung with clothespins on hangars on a clothesline. It is called - ‘Hung Out to Dry.’ It is already in an exhibition in Portland, ME.

In this piece, I have focused on the plight of immigrants, people who are driven to leave their ‘home’ to seek asylum from persecution, or in search of a better life for themselves and their loved ones. Many migrants are asked at the US border to leave all their belongings behind, including clothes, except what can fit in a small plastic bag. Many arrive at migrant shelters with only the clothes on their backs. This is only the beginning of a longer road of prejudice, discrimination, marginalization, lack of access to jobs and services and many other obstacles to creating a better life.

I’ve used the imagery of fencing, grids, rocks and other harsh shapes to represent a wall, barrier or obstacle. The feather images represent the fragility of life as well as its strength to show the fortitude it takes to try to better ones’ life. The botanical elements symbolize the beauty and resilience of nature as well as our human nature to survive. Clothes hanging on clotheslines have been a universal activity for generations. With the advent of clothes dryers, this has come to signify poverty, and people being left behind. It has a class and social stigma to it. Yet there is also pleasure in the task, in being outside and moving with the elements of nature. We are more connected than we are different, we or our ancestors were immigrants at one time, and we all deserve the opportunity to create a better life.The piece is inspired by

October2023

Well I can’t believe it has been a year since I added to this blog. So what have I been up to. I’ve been exploring saturated color in my work, and going three dimensional. I’ve been continuing my work inspired by climate change. I continue to be a member of Shared Habitat Earth (SHE), an artist group committed to art and activism around climate change.

I’ve created art kites and buses made from my monotypes and monorprints. These were inspired by work I saw in Guanajuato, Mexico, I also started collaging some of my prints onto other monotypes and monoprints. Ripping up the paper was very satisfying. It was work I could leave on a table, move around pieces of paper and play with it over time until i felt something coming together.

I spend 3 months in Mexico earlier this year and will be there for a few weeks this fall as well. I now have a wonderful community of friends and art connections there which I am happy to be a part of. Some examples of this new work are included here.

October 2022

Another six months has flown by since I was in Mexico. I’ve been spending most of the time between May and now living on Cranberry Island, with lots of travel back and forth to Massachusetts and New Jersey. I had a wonderful show at the Beacon Gallery in Boston July-August, and many other shows around New England and a few places further away. I love that my work is being seen nationally and internationally. I’ve had a few commissions and will soon have some original work at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. I’ve created a lot of new work over the past six months. Most recently I’ve been working on a new series called ‘We Won’t Shut Up.’ It’s about the fight for women’s reproductive rights. It’s interesting to think about my life’s path and how it may seem like it is scattered, it most certainly has a very defined pattern and my concerns and inspiration have not changed. Many years ago my life took a turn from studying and creating art to getting a degree in Public Health, with a focus on Health Education and within that Sex Education. I worked for Family Planning of Western Massachusetts for many years teaching sex education to middle school, high and college students. I also ran county wide programs and clinics and counseled girls and women about their birth control and reproductive choices as well as abortion. Twenty years ago I got back into my art with a renewed focus and now I am creating art about what we are still fighting for - WOMEN’s REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS! Here are some photos of my process and a finished piece. I decided to work with 5 strong female warriors that I respect and owe much to - Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Angela Davis, Gloria Steinem, Frida Kahlo and Malala Yousafzai.

April 2022

Well it has been a long time since I did a blog entry, Here it is over a year later and I’m just back from almost 9 weeks in Mexico. It was a wonderful time filled with friends, family and lots of creativity. I again worked with Carolina at the B’nai Or Gallery on calle Jesus in San Miguel de Allende. I made several more plates and continued on with similar imagery of skulls and cacti. i added in birds, nests and flowers to put more of a juxtaposition to life/death and resilience. I am focused almost exclusively on climate change with my art. I have joined an art collective call Shared Habitat Earth or SHE. We are putting out art out there to show the beauty of our planet, the effects of climate change and a call to action to save the earth. We are partnering with climate action organizations and schools to promote education and change. Here’s some photos of working in the studio.Another six months has flown by since I was in Mexico. I’ve been spending most of the time between May and now living on Cranberry Island, with lots of travel back and forth to Massachusetts and New Jersey. I had a wonderful show at the Beacon Gallery in Boston July-August, and many other shows around New England and a few places further away. I love that my work is being seen nationally and internationally. I’ve had a few commissions and will soon have some original work at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. I’ve created a lot of new work over the past six months. Most recently I’ve been working on a new series called ‘We Won’t Shut Up.’ It’s about the fight for women’s reproductive rights. It’s interesting to think about my life’s path and how it may seem like it is scattered, it most certainly has a very defined pattern and my concerns and inspiration have not changed. Many years ago my life took a turn from studying and creating art to getting a degree in Public Health, with a focus on Health Education and within that Sex Education. I worked for Family Planning of Western Massachusetts for many years teaching sex education to middle school, high and college students. I also ran county wide programs and clinics and counseled girls and women about their birth control and reproductive choices as well as abortion. Twenty years ago I got back into my art with a renewed focus and now I am creating art about what we are still fighting for - WOMEN’s REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS! Here are some photos of my process and a finished piece. I decided to work with 5 strong female warriors that I respect and owe much to - Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Angela Davis, Gloria Steinem, Frida Kahlo and Malala Yousafzai.

April 2022

Art kites in progress, working out how to create them.

Olla Llena #8, monotype collage, 16”hx12”w

On the Road to Extinction,, monoprints and image transfers, 14”w X 4”hx4”d

Creating stencils from drawings in my Cranberry Island studio - Fall, 2022.

My first attempts at inking up stencils. Not sure where I’m going yet.

Trying the imagery in reverse from the silhouettes. I’m going to keep going with the butterfly imagery and add some words.

I created the words on a toner printer. They need to written backwards and then I use a solvent to release the toner on the image where I want it.

Final Image - hope to showing this piece along with a few others in an upcoming show soon.

Pulling a print at the studio B;na Or. — **Pulling a print at B’nai Or Gallery and Studio in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, March 2022.**

**Skull with cacti and flowers, San Miguel de Allende, March, 2022.**

March 2021

I just spent about five weeks in Mexico and found it a very productive time for creating art. I connected with a wonderful printmaker, Carolina, who runs a printmaking studio and gallery in the Centro of San Miguel de Allende. We spent several days working together. I created several templates and plates inspired by local imagery, primarily cacti and skulls and have the beginnings of a new series about climate change. I’m using the skulls to represent death, transition, loss, and also rebirth. I am very drawn to the shapes of the cacti, as well as their ability to adapt, survive and create beauty in a hot and dry landscape. Here are some images of both my work in process and a couple of finished pieces.

Working in the Printmaking Studio in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, March 2021.

October 2020

I am working on a really interesting collaboration with a friend, Caron Murray. It’s inspired by the Coronavirus. It’s called, Coronavirus: the Novel. It will be a 3D installation with both artwork and text as chapters in a book, like a timeline of the virus and pandemic with a point of view. I have developed a background plate of the virus to use for each chapter of the book. Some photos below. More to come….

September 2020

Earlier this summer I was inspired by the Black Lives Matter protests and spent many hours in my studio channeling my thoughts and emotions creatively. I literally ripped up old prints and papers, rummaged through my piles of found natural materials and trash and cobbled together six mixed media pieces. I sewed feathers, bark and metal to paper and cardboard, I painted, drew, metal leafed and glued until I felt the pieces were conveying what I wanted to express. They are: Enough, Resistance, Breathe, Rise, Justice and Resilience.

April 2020

During this time of social distancing and sheltering at home, I am working out of my home studio and continuing work on a series i’m calling ‘Birds of No Paradise.’ This body of work is influenced by the effects of climate change on bird habitats, food sources, and endangered status as well as adaptation. The fragile balance of our planet’s ecosystem, isolation and also themes of hope, patience and healing are also influencing my work during this pandemic time. I am fortunate to be able to work at home and have plenty of fodder for inspiration now. In addition, I am awed and inspired by the resiliency I see in most us.

The art community both local and larger, has rallied in many ways to provide online settings for showing and sharing art, providing resources for staying connected, and creating many funding and education sources. I participated in a global art-making project called ‘The Great Make’. All participating artists created something in their own space with the purpose of sending out healing energy to the world. I’ve attended a few online workshops for artists, and send images of my work for online showing with several art groups that can no longer meet with in person. I have also learned how to make a video artist talk with my IPhone and IMovie app. I have three completed now!

My next big task is to go to the next step with my inventory and organization of my artwork, exhibitions, expenses and income. So far I’ve only used Excel spreadsheets and photo albums on my computer. Now that I can no longer show my work in person. attend art events and work in my Boston studio, I am thinking of other ways to put my work out there and pay my studio rent. So I’m working on some smaller pieces of art and moving to a web platform where I can sell the work. It’s a brave new world for me and I have the time and the impetus to do it.

Below is an example of a few smaller pieces that I’ve been working on, as well as a couple of my larger pieces created in quarantine.

May 2019

It’s been a busy couple of months of shows and open studios. I’m very honored to have received two award in the past week, one from the Monotype Guild of New England and one from the Brookline Art Center. I’ve been continuing to work on a series from my time in Mexico, one month each winter for the past for winter. I’ve also been incorporating bird imagery into some of my work.

January 2019

I see I haven’t written in a long time, but I have been very busy, doing lots of traveling, Turkey, Costa Rica and Barcelona. I’ve been working through the fall and winter on a new series, ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place.’ This is a feeling that I have in many situations and relationships in navigating all the complexities of decisions, friendships and family, and just trying to be a good person. I’ve been thinking a lot about immigration, the ‘wall’, race issues, women’s issues, etc. It can be very disheartening, especially with the current politics in Washington. I’m continuing to use rocks and feathers in some of these images, as well as some marks that represent barriers and pain, and also hope. I was listening to Buddism 101 on a CD while doing some of this work and contemplating suffering as part of our human condition, and feeling very sad about how little progress we seem to make in our evolution around compassion. Some images that came out of this time are here.

June 2018

I was back in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico for 5 weeks earlier this year, continuing work on my series on 'Mujeres, Diosas, y Guerreras' based on my inspiration of women and female goddesses. This series uses images of current and past female images, some from my own photographs and drawings. I am using a xerox transfer technique in black and white, which I will add color to with some inks, pastels and watercolor, as well as some chine colle. I also kept a travel sketch booking journal. Some images are here of work in progress and journal entries.

December 2017

During June and July of this year I traveled to Rwanda as a chaperone of a group of Boston HS students on a service trip. I do this as part of a non-profit organization I am on the board of, The Jon Walker Kerry Fund. We have a relationship with a HS for orphans and spend two weeks there doing service work and becoming part of a 'family'. It's a life changing experience on many levels. Since my return I've been struggling with how to integrate my feelings and experience with my art. I am inspired by the colors of Rwanda, red dirt green hills, dark skin, yellow sun and the many colors of the fields and grasses. Most Rwandans are very religious, believing in Christianity while also incorporating many of their cultural spiritual beliefs. I don't think I've been around people who are more positive, affectionate and appreciative, It's hard to believe that the genocide of nearly a million people took place here just over 20 years ago. The Rwandans have chosen love over hate and hope to never repeat the divisions of the past. Dance and music are a big part of their world. So some images and colors have begun to emerge from this experience for me, as well as a title, ' Forgive but don't Forget.' This is still a work in progress. Some images I'm working on are here.

July 2017

Spent another month in San Miquel de Allende and learned some new printmaking techniques from a wonderful fellow printmaker, Linda Soberman. She uses a xerox transfer process with pure acetone. its the best I've used for a complete transfer. Just make sure you have very good ventilation.

Working on a new series, 'Viva Mexico', strong female images. Here is the Virgin of Guadeloupe with an Aztec Goddess.

November 2016

Just back from a long season on Cranberry Island with lots of new work. New pieces have been informed by recent political landscape as well as more literal landscape.

August 2016

Working on some heart rocks and wishing stones in studio. Thinking about a project of many small prints of individual rocks.

May 2016, Fiber Art Experimentation

Over the past few weeks I have been experimenting with fabric and paper - shibori , rust and eco-dyeing, as well as paper-making, stitching and more. I'm looking to incorporate some of this into my printmaking.

March 2016, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Just finishing a month of exploration and wonder in every possible way in San Miguel, Mexico. I've been wandering, painting, sketching, photographing and taking lots of workshops. I've been working with encaustic monotypes and incorporating other materials into my prints. I'm so inspired by all that I've experienced, and can't wait to get back into my studio in Boston.

Encaustic Monotypes Created in San Miguel