#sharonshapiro

Field Day, Sharon Shapiro

The original image was taken from a vintage magazine pictorial of a woman walking through a field wearing a blouse reminiscent of my 1970s prepubescent years. I chose to paint two identical women walking across the picture plane; making it unclear whether they are two women or the same woman portrayed in two different stages of motion. This calls into question whether these women are twins, participating in the same erotic fantasy, or whether there is only one woman, leaving herself behind.

Holiday, Sharon Shapiro

I paint the bittersweet: what we mean not to lose. I am a troller for other people's pasts, hoping to find images that can be knitted together with my own. Sometimes I begin by putting specific search terms into eBay in order to discover anonymous photographs with personal relevance. Recently, the terms “swimming pools + 1970s + America” brought up the photo that was the inspiration for this painting as well as "Above Ground.” When inspected closely, photographs can reveal a deeper tension than what was intended in the moment. I examine figures in discarded photos and then place them in the new context of my work.

Nine Lives, Sharon Shapiro

A portrait of musician Mary Timony as a 12 year old girl, reinterpreted in yellow. This image was found by conducting an internet search of the word "pilgrim" which appears on the girl's shirt. Timony is the former lead singer for Helium.

Deeper, Sharon Shapiro

A watercolor of a young girl in a bathtub.

Jewel Box, Sharon Shapiro

Collage involves the intuitive process of collecting and assembling disparate found images and then reconstructing them into a wholly new experience. There are deliberate choices and careful editing; yet I embrace the phenomenon of chance. Often, what results are pieces unto themselves that are inspired by thoughts of time, heredity, gender, sex, the personal and the historic.

Badlands, Sharon Shapiro

A self-portrait

Sweet Emotion, Sharon Shapiro

Spider-like lashes and feathered hair embody the paradox of the stylized “natural” look popular during the 1970s. Meanwhile, a red clown nose on this woman's face indicates something between the morals of Pinocchio and The Scarlet Letter. It is unclear whether she wears the nose willingly, as in part of a performance or for a quick joke, or whether the nose has been superimposed as a judgment.

Cure for Pain, Sharon Shapiro

Two young girls' world peels away into the inflamed pink of a new wound, as though color is a picked-at scab. One girl's hand forms a long shadow along the side of the pool, resembling a reptilian claw. Her companion's hand reaches towards the same obscured thing. Behind the pool, green grass extends into the yard; the pool is the center of dreamy instability. When the water is furthest from the girls it turns into painterly loops, as though it is a cloth bent as the prop of water but not liquid itself.