In my series In Her Studio each painting depicts an individual artist at the site of her creativity. The project is a continuously evolving record of contemporary women artists, and serves as an expansive homage to my latest influences. Scraping and sculpting impastos upon broad swaths of color, I build an open network of artists through my promiscuous taste and elastic use of paint. Each canvas becomes a metaphor for the studio as a place of invention, vulnerability, and freedom. While building compositions, these works are also about building a community of artists and drawing them into my world. Elaborating on first-generation feminist artists like Sylvia Sleigh, Mary Beth Edelson and May Stevens who used group portraits as a method of community building, I am proposing that painting can function as an alternate form of social media.

Kerri Scharlin

Kerri Scharlin