Featured Artist Sydney Scherr

Artist Sydney Scherr presents an inspired collection of jewelry and sculptural work. Enjoy her portfolio and visit her website to learn more.

 

 

I am a storyteller. Visually and verbally, although my stronger voice is non-verbal for it is the one that cannot be silenced.

 

 

I think of music and consider the space between the notes. This silence frames and informs the structure of the music and gets to the heart of it. This respite, whether visual or verbal, creates the space for the whole to take shape.

 

 

So too, I see the space between as an articulation of the structure and heart of the story I am telling, in whichever medium I am compelled to use: jewelry, drawing and sculpture.

 

 

I always wondered why craftsman so often hid behind technique. It is what we often talk about and spend countless hours getting right. I always wanted to emerge from the shadows and express myself. Mostly, only when I am teaching do I want to talk technique.

 

 

Authors, singers and artists who create work that takes my breath away, are brave in a way that often craftsman are not. They express and expose themselves. Writing, singing, painting or sculpting their way through love, loss, joy, trauma and passion. This personal transparency is where I find inspiration.

 

 

I ask this of my students as well. To find the pathway into their own artistic voice through a design development strategy I created: Design and Inspiration as process. Recognizing that inspired design is a process makes it less daunting for those who believe they “don’t know how to draw” or “how to design” and merely copy what has come before.

 

 

In my own work the story inspires design, and this is also the foundation of commissioned work. I learn about my clients by asking questions and listening to their words. Their words inform my design. A commissioned work of mine is truly  an expression of bespoke elegance in concept and execution.

 

 

When opportunities present themselves, I embrace experiences that are often far beyond my comfort zone. They are a part of what I consider personal growth rhythms. Being receptive to challenging possibilities has opened many doors. The most profoundly meaningful was being invited to work on a Silver Hindu Chariot, a traveling temple. It was an honor to work with the wonderful chariot makers from Kuala Lumpur and Tamil Nadu. Working on something so reverential and so much bigger than anyone of us, with a deep sense of serene devotion, was an extraordinary journey.

 

 

It is good to pay attention. Every experience provides dynamics that engage the narrative. And as visual artists, we have the luxury and ability to create our own visual language, abstracted or not, that tells the story, defines your voice and moves you out of the shadows.

 

Sydney Scherr invites you to follow her on Instagram.

 

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