Today we’d like to introduce you to Colin Sherrell.
Colin, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Sure, my story started back in 1984 living in Aurora IL. I grew up in a family of creators. To list a few, my father, Steve Sherrell, is a career artist, my mother is a quilter, my sister is in interior design, and my grandfather was a painter and window display dresser. All I have ever known has been to use imagination, creativity, and explore my artistic talents. Being the son of a painter I always had plenty of materials to play with. I began making art very early in my life and some thirty years later I’m still making.
When I was twenty-one, I moved to Miami, FL to attend art school. I received a scholarship, high honors, and a BFA from New World School of Arts. There I studied under many, but particularly Fred Snitzer, Suzan Banks, Carol Brown, and Alicia Pitchinik. They each guided me to better understand my shortcomings and how to hone my abilities and ideas. They were tough coconuts to crack, but they had some sweet water once I figured out what they were talking about. They helped me finally see what I was so naive to in the art world and how to be a professional artist.
Immediately after obtaining my BFA, I was solicited by the University of Miami for their graduate program in pursuit of an MFA. I was given a Teaching Assistant position and a full scholarship. While at UM I studied under Billie Grace Lynn, Cristy Gast, Alex Adams, Paula Harper, and Darby Bannard. They each brought me a wide variety of differences and approaches on how to view or express my artwork on a deeper level. I look back at those 7-9 years in school and can’t believe how much I took in and cranked out. Years after years of making in environments and facilities that strived for creativity, pushed me to where I am now. I am now an emerging artist with new goals and desires looking for growth and new opportunities.
Three years ago I moved back to the suburbs of Chicago to pursue my art career in my home state. I grew up on the outskirts of this city and have been going to galleries and museums in Chicago my whole life. Its home here and I want to be a part of the Chicago Art Scene. Currently, I am involved in an Artist Collective through Waterstreet Studios in downtown Batavia, IL. There I am also the preparator for their two galleries. My father and I both are a part of this Collective and plan on exhibiting together in our first two-person exhibition. We have shown together before in larger group shows, but come July next year will be the beginning of something unique.
In addition, located only two blocks from downtown Oswego, IL, my wife Theresa and I own and operate Mod Dog Grooming Studio. We are a home-based, family ran, fully equipped grooming studio. We treat your pet to a professional, quality grooming experience. From the tip of their nose to the tip of their tail, your pet will be pampered, cleaned, and trimmed to your liking or breed standard.
Has it been a smooth road?
Are any roads “Smooth”? This is Chicago.
Like any career there are challenges but in the arts, I think if there isn’t a challenge then you’re not in the game. This is a cutthroat life choice and a tough road to go down. Lots of doubts, self-dilemmas, endless judgment, and late nights. Among being broke, working any and all jobs that come my way, having expensive tastes towards materials or ideas, and never having enough time, money, or space to work/store work, the struggles are inevitable. An instructor once asked me what turmoil I had in my childhood and I said puppies and kittens, the turmoil is in my adult life, experiences, and in the arts. I find that the simplicity of my childhood cushioned the road a little by keeping me young at heart but adult life is a drag. Too many responsibilities that get in the way of making art. These may sound bleak and not all that bad, but life throws us plenty of other hiccups that don’t always need to be discussed.
With that said I honor challenge and struggle. I learn from my struggles and take those experiences to better inform my choices. Much of my work requires a demanding amount of labor or ingenuity to make them as clean as they are and with each piece comes new challenges.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Colin Sherrell Arts & Mod Dog Grooming Studio story. Tell us more about the business.
My wife and I own and operate an at home dog grooming business, but as an artist, I am a third generation artist with an artist father and grandfather. Growing up surrounded by art, my artwork tends to deal with referencing existing artistic movements including Pop, Conceptualism, Fluxus, Dada, Minimalism, or Arte Povera. I approach these tendencies by working with traditional and nontraditional processes, materials, concepts, and theory. I utilize woodworking, fiberglass, glass, ceramics, stone masonry, painting, and metal fabrication. The process and material inform the concept of each piece or vice versa. I tend to say that I am a conceptual crafter or conceptual artist that utilizes traditional craft/industrial processes.
Moreover, having a life saturated with art, I have had many occupations. I have done janitorial work, contracting, interior design, museum prep, teaching, furniture/boat building, and dog grooming. Similarly to referencing art tendencies, I honor trades by incorporating their influences and processes into my artwork
Additionally, I incorporate metaphors reflecting interrelations between subjects and ideas. Everything from useless/utilitarian, strength/fragility, balance/instability, tension/slack, and so forth are utilized. Relationships revolve around all aspects of our life and existence; yin/yang, love/hate, or life/death, one needs its opposite. I take these dichotomies and bind them together with my life and experiences. Each piece I make stems from my experience in this world and the world of art, industry, and interrelations.
Pricing:
- $600-$12,000
Contact Info:
- Address: Colin Sherrell Arts &
Mod Dog Grooming Studio
Oswego, IL 60543 - Website: http://www.colinsherrell.com & http://www.moddoggroomingstudio.com
- Email: colinsherrell@yahoo.com & moddoggroomingstudio@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/colinsherrell/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/colin.sherrell & https://www.facebook.com/moddoggroomingstudio/
Image Credit:
Colin Sherrell
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