STATEMENT

My oils (and poetry), though often based on the recognizable, share a deeper, "off to the side" look at life than the purely representational. In each of these arts, I endeavor to tap into and convey life’s undertow which, to me, is the unspoken, unseen energy that brings close and binds artists and their readers or viewers. From the beauty of agricultural fields and barns, abandoned and in use; of bodies of water and their islands and shores; of the forms and eyes of animals, wild and domestic; of the human form; of our architecture―the constant conversing of light and shading and coloration that lets us see these things is what I always try to convey. I have always painted abstracts as well as recognizable images, but have focused on abstractions in 2019. I am not one who can paint without an intention, and so these derive from emotion or a life observation I wish to convey "without words," so to speak. I love working with oils and also love working with tools in addition to brushes and palette knives, such as flexible pottery ribs, sea sponges, rags, fingers, ends of brushes run through the paint on the canvas.

BIO

Sheryl Massaro is an oil painter, poet, and photographer based in historic Frederick, MD, where she is active in several arts organizations. Massaro’s oils and photography have been exhibited in many galleries and museums nationally (solo and juried exhibitions) and are in several private collections. In 2018, she became a Resident Artist at Frederick’s Griffin Art Center, where she works from her Art & Pen Studio.

Massaro holds an MFA in Creative Writing/Poetry from The American University and studied with several key poets, including Allen Ginsberg, Stanley Kunitz, W.S. Merwin, and Galway Kinnell. She has had residencies at Yaddo (New York) and St. Peter’s (Canada) colonies. Massaro’s first book-length collection of poems, The Hood of Evening, was published in late 2017. She has begun a new collection of poems on the many aspects of water.

Massaro's poetry is available through sherylmassaro@gmail.com.

Massaro's visual art is represented by District Arts Gallery, 15 N Market Street, Frederick, MD (districtarts.com).