Artist Statement:

My responsibility as an artist is to create work that causes people to stop and explore the subleties of the image, to perhaps experience a contemplative, thought-provoking meeting between themselves and the painting; to even jog a feeling or a memory. I attempt to initiate the questions and leave the answers to the viewer.

My name is Sherry O'Neill and I have been drawing and painting most of my life. I was born and raised in and around the Panhandle of Florida. After completing my BA in 1991, I decided the best education I could receive was studying with living artists that were "down in the trenches", creating art everyday. Since that time I have studied with some outstanding artists and have developed my own distinctive style.

Although I have worked in almost every medium, I now favor water-based mixed media. While my influences are many, my art is mainly motivated by an intense, innate desire to create. Painting takes me to a deep, secret place within myself that I am unable to access any other way. It is an imaginary, childlike dreamworld where thoughts, ideas and expressions are allowed to roam free, unfettered by judgment or scorn. By placing thoughts and images directly onto the medium, literally thinking the work onto the surface, I achieve an immediacy and simplicity that I hope allows the viewer to take that journey with me.

Sherry is a signature member of several international and national art organizations, including the International Society of Experimental Artists, Florida Watercolor Society, National Collage Society and was inducted into The National Association of Women Artists in 2000. Her work is in private as well as corporate collections and can be viewed at Onessimo Fine Art Gallery www.onessimofineart.com and The Design Center of America in Ft. Lauderdale.