Art Allows Me to Step Outside Myself with artist Sharon Volpe
How has writing creating art supported your healing journey?
Art allows me to step outside myself. If I am feeling down or feeling insecure about my art that actually the creating of it will give me a sense of empowerment. I will feel renewed because I created something fresh and each time my artwork grows and then I can heal.
What does it mean for you to roar? Can you share about a time you overcame feeling silenced?
I think its to push on even when people are trying to keep you in a box. Top brush it aside and keep persevering. Not to yell and scream and confront but to silently show strength. I often have to keep this approach in mind as to my experience in my MFA program and feeling silenced as to being compared to others, or my opinions and creative thoughts were pushed aside. Being told "you are not good at that style,", or "that's not for you" .... This is not always coming from men either. Sometimes we can allow other women to silence us. It becomes a cycle of being silenced, and then silencing other when we shouldn't. I kept my inner strength and just kept working and working each day because I knew that my art could evolve and become impactful. People could and would notice my artwork. I think back to that time and I am still learning from it, but knowing that it's better to be put down by others that do nothing, than do nothing and criticize. Just keep pushing forward.
What prompted these beautiful portraits?
My purpose is to show the expression and power men and women have from the inside out. I use colors, symbols and textures to bring that out. Also, growing up my love for fashion, advertising and beauty of all kinds, sizes and races started at a young age. My parents owned a retail store, so I was fascinated with fantasy through how we look and feel by what we wore or the way we smell. On the other end, I was a painter and vigorously studied the way people were altered in the works of Matisse, Picasso, Modigliani, and even Warhol. How they captivated a moment and even showed human emotions, or a special time period with color and line. I studied graphic design and illustration, and worked hard to develop my own unique style that tells a story of a human’s emotions through shapes , brush stokes, and composition. I work in varied mediums from digital painting to acrylic painting, and sometimes the how they can be combined so seamlessly. Through my portraits and figurative work, my objective is to portray a reinterpretation of ideal beauty. The GOAL: to create images that makes a viewer stop in their tracks and wonder.
Hoping at least that I make people say “I wonder what they are thinking, or are they feeling empowered?”
What advice would you give to artist that want to pursue their craft, but don't know where to begin?
Draw the same thing 500 times. Then you will see something from that, I promise you will.
What is one thing you want women to know today?
To be yourself. Take it or leave it. Some will tag along for the ride and others will not. But do not lose sight of yourself and your goals and what makes you feel good inside. Don't change for other, be true to you
Sharon Volpe Is an illustrator/painter that transforms how humans feel on the inside through to the outside using expressions, playful themes and symbols. She comes from the surrounding NYC area, and completed an M.F.A. in illustration at The Fashion Institute of Technology in 2016 where she studied under well-known painters and illustrators such as Brendan Leach, Aya Kakeda, Martha Rich and Martin Wittfooth. Prior to that she studied graphic design at The School of Visual Arts. Her work has been exhibited in advertising, magazines, point-of-sale, digital apps and in gallery exhibits in the U.S. and abroad.
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