sheri@sherirushart.net    •   773.728.1477   •   Chicago, IL •   773.728.1427   •   Chicago, IL

sheri rush art chicago paintng painter sherry sherrie shari rusch nature painting pianting

"Point of Balance"
Oil on Canvas Paper
50" x 36"
Sheri Rush © 2002

An artist brings her own being and experiences to an object, and therefore allows the spectator the new perceptions and/or experiences of new energies, because conventional associations are removed. Nature has the capability to go beyond ordinary landscape painting, to convey thoughts, moods, emotions, and to reflect man's actions. Inner forces are freed to unfold as forms. Landscape can provide the structure for depicting the human drama.

The Chinese say, "landscape - hills, gardens, will always be the haunts of him who seeks to cultivate his original nature."

In the 20 years of painting since earning my Master's degree, my underlying philosophy has pretty much stayed the same, while my execution and technique have been a constant search, and, sometimes, just a vicious cycle. In my paintings, the description of objects in nature is not as important as their symbolic rendering, and the precise conditioning of space that manifests a particular psychological state. I am faithful to the tensions and ultimate structure that exists in the spaces I photograph in B&W, print, and finally paint.

"...Man never chooses a site, he simply discovers it..." Mircea Eliade

Using landscape-derived imagery is not only an attempt to render that which is not immediately present, but to unsettle the observer's familiar assumptions of reality. One feels the dissolution of self when closest to the image. At times the brushstrokes seem to crack open the surface, yet when one pulls away to get that distance viewpoint the world shakes and shimmers back into perspective; a logic of sense and place.

The fact that the works are on canvas paper, or unstretched linen, correlates directly with my abhorrence for the boundaries of manmade structures, i.e. stretched canvases with frames, being imposed on a dynamic Universe.

-Sheri Rush