Joan Sharma

Artist Statement

As a child I often drew and after searching our house for shirt cardboard, acorn clips, string I created three-dimensional structures. In retrospect, I had an unusual ability to self-direct these projects and concentrate for long periods of time. I have wonderful memories of long walks through the fields, woods and streams sandwiched between neighborhoods at the edge of the suburban sprawl of my childhood. Nature was my teacher and cherished companion. I longed for these precious moments of freedom that fed my curiosity and sense of wonder.

The beginning of my professional art career depends on the definition. Upon receiving my BFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, I received an award for “Outstanding Painter”. While still a graduate student at Indiana University one of my oil paintings, titled “Gemini” was purchased by the Indianapolis Museum of Art for their permanent collection during a competitive exhibition juried by Miriam Shapiro. The earliest “one-person” exhibition was in the hallway display case of my local high school. Since those formative years, I have exhibited in numerous one-person, juried and group exhibitions. My work is in public and private collections in the US and abroad.

I worked as a graphic designer during my early 20’s, first for a small newspaper and then a greeting card company. At Norcross Greeting Card company, one of the designers showed me a beautiful book on Impressionist paintings and at that moment, I knew that I wanted to return to art school to focus on oil painting. I had left Tyler in the middle of my sophomore year for personal reasons and I had difficulty justifying this self-absorbed lifestyle while people were being napalmed and maimed in Vietnam. My concern with this issue continues today. I believe that I have a responsibility to contribute something positive to the world rather than adding to the misery that many people locally and globally experience. That is why I chose to facilitate the creation of the mural with members of the “Village of Hope” on the 72’ wall located opposite their Tuff-Shed community camp as well as to design and paint a mural in the lobby of the Fresno County Children’s Mental Health Outpatient Clinic. The murals are quite different from the abstract oil paintings.

As my ideas evolve and become focused my paintings follow one another in a related sequence. I don’t begin with a particular theme, but this may change in the future. Aside from the mural projects, I collaborate with other artists within the context of committee work in my job as a professor at Fresno State and as a member of Gallery 25. I would like to have the opportunity to collaborate with others artists on a creative project connecting painting and drawing to art forms such as music and poetry. The creative process provides me with an oasis of personal freedom to express my deepest thoughts and private reflections or to simply play. This means that at times I work in oils on canvas and at other times I use a digital camera, printer etc. These images and ideas inform and influence one another. I am fascinated by this “dialogue”, that reflects yet another dimension of nature that we express through our various actions. I am fascinated by the concepts and abstract configurations of Indian Tantric Art forms. I continue to be deeply moved by the resonant color field paintings of Mark Rothko and light installations by James Turrell.

Words of advice? To quote Joseph Campbell, “Follow your bliss”.

------------------------------
About Joan Sharma: Joan Sharma received her MFA from Indiana University and a BFA from Temple University's Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, where she received the "Edith Weil Hecht Outstanding Painter Award". During her junior year at Tyler, Joan had the opportunity to lived and studied in Rome, Italy.

She has taught at Moore College of Art and Design, The College of Wooster and in Switzerland. Joan moved to Fresno in 2003 to join the Department of Art and Design where she currently teaches 2-D, 3-D Design, Color Theory and Photography.

Joan's work is in private and public collections and has been exhibited throughout the United States and internationally in numerous individual, juried and group shows.