Sharyn Turner Richardson

sharyn@lightpixiestudio.com

www.lightpixiestudio.com

Instagram: /sharyn.richardson_lightpixie

Twitter: /lightpixie

Linkedin: /sharynrichardson

Profile

I'm an artist who thinks in images that tell stories. I make art because it’s my lens to see the world. I studied fine art painting in college, pursued a different profession, but always made art. Born into a family of artists who encouraged creativity from the start, I credit what I gained in college but learned as much by watching, practicing and doing. I take training to this day in person and on-line, discovering the earliest kinds of artful expression on through the classics into the contemporary art scene. I remain an active participant in digital media using my skills in photography, image restoration and retouching, the elements of good design and critique to create and grow in my practice. I paint almost every day and color is the thing that most distinguishes my work.

Oil on canvas was my medium until the volatile esters made me ill. I shifted briefly to acrylic but the drag and timing felt unnatural. An early adopter of good ideas and new technologies, I built a gamers’ computer and was software competent along with basic programming. Computers became irresistibly seductive tools with great potential for everything including art. Fearlessly retraining for the digital world thirty years ago, I converted traditional paint and brushes into electronic tools

Along the way my portrait commissions gained a wider audience and those experiences helped me grow. As I matured in art and life I began to see the world differently and my aesthetic evolved to be more nuanced and complex. This shift in perspective was not surprising given this:  

• My thesis, “Defensible Space in a Housing Project: A Case Study from a South Florida Ghetto,” based on two years of study in small area of Miami’s Overtown district, built a strong case for best practices in urban design and color to improve peoples’ lives.
• My dissertation, “Art as Propaganda: Selected Socialization and Communication Factors affected by Graphic Art in the Soviet Union; The Impact of Beliefs, Attitudes and Values on Political Socialization,” was seven years of study and research to analyze how graphic design and imagery impact society.

That’s how this artist continued to grow while earning my living in another profession. At every juncture I chose art and figured out a way to bend life to that agenda.

To understand my artful journey know first that the most significant step in my early art training came from never having been told I couldn’t.

• Three artist members of my family took an active interest in teaching me how to work and think like an artist, 
• I learned Photoshop from version CS4 and other software including AI tools,
• I travelled widely to explore most of the significant art museums and many of the best art galleries in the world,
• A university career provided many years of art and studio training as a perk of my faculty contract including learning sculptural and small scale design as a silversmith,
• Work in the Florida Everglades was another opportunity to interact with and watch how the masters addressed it, learning to see beyond the surface,
• These many years later I continue to grow in my skills and artistic insights. My work is significantly different even in the past few months, looser and more abstract. Each new insight and tool brings new opportunities to speak with my art.

All artists face some of the same difficulties and others made from their own unique circumstances--I am a product of it all.  With so much beauty in the world and so many important stories to tell, my work is cut out for me. Today technology allows me to create in unique ways to express any thought, idea, or reality seen or imagined. It offers a large, virtual community of artist friends and so many good people. I love my work in art, cherish it for the privilege it is, and look forward to all that comes next.

Education

1972 MA in Environmental Science, Florida Atlantic University

Thesis, “Defensible Space in a Housing Project: A Case Study from a South Florida Ghetto”

1980 PhD in International Affairs—Soviet Specialty, School of Business, University of Miami, Florida

Dissertation, “Art as Propaganda: Selected Socialization and Communication Factors affected by Graphic Art in the Soviet Union; The Impact of Beliefs, Attitudes and Values on Political Socialization”

A significant part of my education came in work with Marjory Stoneman Douglas, author of the seminal "Everglades: River of Grass," the first to identify the Everglades as a wide, shallow river rather than a swamp. As her personal and executive assistant, I had a front row seat for the last twenty years of her life and countless opportunities to work with the scientists and the artists of the Everglades. Marjory was the source of the work that helped me earn tenure and it was Everglades artists who taught by their example the subtlety of beauty..

Read and speak Norwegian fluently

Read French comfortably though a nervous speaker

Working research ability in Russian

Professional Appointments

I taught middle school history and social science for a couple of years in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, then Environmental Science at Miami-Dade Community College for a couple more.

The following twenty-five years were on the faculty of Barry University, Miami, Florida. I earned Professorship in the School of Arts and Sciences and tenure in 1980; promoted to Dean of Faculty in 1985.

My path is not conventional but my collectors, commission patrons, and all those whose stories I’ve told in their portraits only know that they love my work.

https://www.lightpixiestudio.com