I often start with a figurative painting or a portrait. Then I adapt to the particular situation by subverting the picture plane in a variety of ways. Usually I either contract or expand the depicted space using one or more floating, intruding, or incongruous objects or subjects. My aim is to develop the classic genre of figurative work or portraiture into something more psychologically expressive and amusing. I chiefly work in pastel, oil pastel, or watercolor.

I've continued to expand my Islamic tile series this year in a different shape/format. I've also returned to one of my first loves (sumi ink + watercolor) created both on paper and on canvas.

My show will be part of Hunter's Point on 10/29 and 10/30; hope to see you there!

I am driven by a need to make sense of the world around me, which I see as fragmented, contradictory, and anxious. I seek to capture the cartoonishness that runs through American society wherein the individual is not only bombarded by an excess of choice, information, and rampant consumerism, but is also in a constant state of wanting more. Flotsam from this perpetual cycle of consumer pop culture is woven into my paintings, embedding my figures in an intricate web that suggests the non-stop movement of the mind, as well as the depth, complexity, and interconnectedness of life.

My work is influenced by music, cartoons, and dreams: I am fascinated with their spatial, temporal and structural components which I see as analogous to contemporary consciousness. I work primarily with layers of paint and collage that are woven together to create a dense network of relationships ripe with narrative possibilities. By using disparate and often ambiguous images, the flow of ideas becomes disrupted, meaning is subverted, and logic is obfuscated. My work becomes infused with an elusive visual poetry that seeks to inspire viewers to make their own connections based on personal associations.

In my work I am constantly translating a story I have in mind into images. My process involves building a surface, then scratching away most of what was originally painted. As I scratch I become in touch, literally and metaphorically, with the painting. Using colors, lines and shapes it often reflects in a whimsical and playful imagery.

SERENDIPITY

 - the faculty or phenomenem of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for...

For almost three decades Sharon Steuer has pioneered the merging of traditional and digital art forms. Sharon's recent work weaves together her oil paintings, drawings, digital paintings, photographs, and personal artifacts to explore and reflect fragmented memory. Awards for her artwork include the national Faber Birren Color Award, a Windsor Newton Painting award, and a Artist Fellowship Grant from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. Her studio is in the 60-artist building Workspace Limited, studio 14a, 2150 Folsom Street (between 17th and 18th).

Sharon is also is an author who teaches how to use digital tools to create artwork in books (The Adobe Illustrator WOW! Books, Creative Thinking in Photoshop), videos (lynda.com/SharonSteuer), and as a regular contributor CreativePro.com.

This year I will be featuring images from a new body of work, still in process. These are mixed media pieces on both canvas and water color paper incorporating multiple mediums including acryllic, ink, spray paint and water color as well as my own photography, found images,objects and text.The work is evocative and intended to provoke the imagination of the viewer. I hope you will join me for the launch of this new work!