BIO

Visual Art. Sheryl Massaro is an oil painter, poet, and photographer based in historic Frederick, MD, where she is active in arts organizations. Massaro’s award-winning oils and photography have been exhibited in galleries and museums nationally (solo and juried exhibitions) and are in several private collections. Currently, she is a Studio Artist at the Frederick Arts Council (FAC) Studios, where she works from her Art & Pen Studio. Massaro's visual art is represented by the FAC/Hurwitz Gallery at 1 N Market Street, Frederick, MD.

Writing. In 2023, Massaro completed Rilke's Duino Elegies - An Interpretive Translation. This project was a re-interpretation of her 1987 translation of Rilke’s Duino Elegies, with the goal of making these poems more accessible and understandable to modern and younger audiences. It was funded by a stipend from the National Endowment for the Arts through the Frederick Arts Council. In addition to the Duino Elegies, Massaro published two books of her own work in 2023. Afloat is a collection of poems on our kinship with water; A Generation is a collection of her poems from a 30-year period. (These books are available from this website; ebooks and print-on-demand amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com; in Frederick, MD, hard copies are at Curious Iguana book store and Delaplaine gift shop.) In 2022, Massaro was asked to share her poetry in the pages of The Frederick News-Post’s 72 Hours publication; every second Thursday of the month, her column on writing Everyday Poetry appears, including a poem.

Background. 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 others. She has had residencies at Yaddo (New York) and St. Peter’s (Canada) colonies. Massaro has taught workshops sporadically, including at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, MD; Darnestown and Frederick Presbyterian churches; and several in-home sessions. She has led a monthly Words in Progress writing group for 8 years. Unrelated background information includes Massaro’s 35-yr Federal career at The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and at NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse, where she was involved in speech-writing, press work, and public affairs and public education outreach.

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 try to convey. 

PAST EXHIBITS

Solo Art Exhibits

2023 Riverworks Art Center, Poolesville, MD

2019 Abstractions, Griffin Gallery, Griffin Art Center, Frederick MD

2013 Earth & Spectrum, Griffin Gallery, Griffin Art Center, Frederick MD

Small Group Art Exhibits

2024 Dreamscapes Unveiled, Hurwitz Gallery, Frederick, MD

2023 FAC Studio Artists, Hurwitz Gallery, Frederick, MD

2018 The C. William Gilchrist Museum of the Arts, Cumberland MD

Brienne Brown & Sheryl Massaro

2017 Artists & Makers, Be Still still life paintings and photography, Rockville MD

Sheryl Massaro & Coriolana Simon

2014 Main Galleries, Delaplaine, Parallels & Perspectives, Frederick MD

Audrey Farnsworth, Courtney Lee, Sheryl Massaro, Paula Rubin-Wexler,

Karen Winston-Levin

Juried Art exhibits

2023 Celestial Exhibit, Bohrer Park Gallery, Gaithersburg, MD

2021 BLOOM, Gallery 115 at the Y, Frederick, MD

2020 21^st Annual Wills Creek Exhibition of Fine Art, Allegany Arts Council, Cumberland, MD

Second Place Award

2020 Kentlands Arts Barn, Drawing: Eloquence of Line, Gaithersburg MD

2020 Kentlands Arts Barn, Painterly Brushstrokes: Captured Essence, Gaithersburg

2019 Night: The 28^th Annual Strathmore Juried Exhibition, Bethesda MD

2019 Big, Bold, & Beautiful Exhibit of Large Art, Bohrer Park Gallery, Gaithersburg MD

2018 85^th Annual Cumberland Valley Artist Exhibit, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts,

Hagerstown MD

2018 Colorado Creative Industries Exhibit at the State Capital, Works by Plein Air Artists

of Colorado, Denver CO

2017 9^th National Juried Members Show, Plein Air Painters of New Mexico, Sorrel Sky Gallery,

Santa Fe NM

2017 Kentlands Arts Barn, Winter White Exhibit, Gaithersburg MD

2015 82^nd Annual Cumberland Valley Artist Exhibit, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts,

Hagerstown MD

2011 Kentlands Mansion, Multimedia Exhibit, Gaithersburg MD

Solo Photo Exhibits

2015 Hall Gallery, Delaplaine Arts Center, Frederick MD

2015 Chamber of Commerce, Frederick MD

2015 Delaplaine Gallery at Urbana Public Library, Urbana MD

Juried Photo Exhibits

2018 Hodgson Gallery, Frederick Community College, Frederick MD

2015 82^nd Annual Cumberland Valley Photographic Exhibit Washington County

Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown MD

Multi National Photography Exhibit, Main Galleries, Delaplaine, Frederick MD