Talent Pamela Sheridan

There's beauty and angst going on at the same time always...where do you put your focus?

Throughout my life I have been an artist. From my youngest memories, my world has been a series of colors and patterns. I seemed to have always thought of life somewhat out of the box. Many times growing up I found my nonconformist nature to be a thorn in my side. Regardless of how much I wanted to “blend” with the world around me, I found that I could not help but see things differently. As an adult I learned to accept and cherish this aspect of my personality. It allows me to take chances in my life and to make works of contemporary art that are exciting, energetic, and thought provoking. Art is not just something I do; being an artist is my identity. I recently started working with abstraction within the past few years. The turning point for me in my work was when I was diagnosed with cancer during the summer of 2005. My entire way of thinking changed after the diagnosis. One thing that became apparent to me during this time is that there are no guarantees, no real way of knowing what will come next. It's a very humbling experience. I started working expressively and abstractly with my art. My work became very powerful and energetic, full of movement and color. Working this way is very exciting and freeing. It helped me to be very resilient through my treatment and helped me accept the element of the unknown (which can be quite terrifying). What is seen within the work is pure emotion, things that I have no words to describe. If you look at the pieces and scratch your head, that's all right, you don't have to totally understand what is going on to enjoy the work, it's more about looking at something interesting and a little funky. Art, like music, means different things to different people. For me, for my work, I love seeing what others get from art.