Journey
I always liked to draw and paint. My mother encouraged me, since I was physically disabled from an early age and was often out of school. She took me to the museums in San Francisco, where I had strong, lasting experiences of art. One of my favorites was the Rodin “Thinker” in the courtyard of the Palace of the Legion of Honor, and another was the Degas sculpture of a young ballerina inside the museum. At the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, when I was still in grade school, we saw an exhibit of Matisse cut-outs that amazed and delighted me.
I received a B.A. in painting from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute. As a Bay Area native, I felt fortunate to be where there was so much creative activity going on around me.
After college, I made several trips to Italy, where I started doing drawings right on the street. I stayed several summers in a small town where art supplies were scarce, so when I used up the paper I had, I would just start over and layer more drawings on top of the ones I had done. This work helped to loosen the academic approach to art I had been exposed to in college.
After years of traveling, I returned to the Bay Area to find my way as an artist. I discovered working freely on large pieces especially exciting, probably as an antidote to the careful, slow way I walked using one or two canes. I use oil paint and generally develop a scenario with some recognizable forms, like animals or people. My paintings are often humorous, which is a saving grace in a difficult or perplexing world.
I had been a kid who would color within the lines, as if neatness mattered. Today, I know that there is no way forward in my art without indecision and doubt, and usually a mess. I want to surprise myself, and there is no certain way to do so without putting in the time and having the courage to fail.
EDUCATION
San Francisco Art Institute, MFA 1976
University of California, Berkeley, BA 1971
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2014 Mine Gallery, Fairfax, CA
2012 Dance Palace, PT Reyes Station, CA
2011 Fairfax Public Library, Fairfax CA2001 Paintings & Constructions, San Geronimo Valley Community Center, San Geronimo, CA
2000 Paintings/Textile Hybrids, San Geronimo Valley Community Center, San Geronimo, CA
1997 Tea on a Twig, collaboration with Sha Sha Higby, Theatre Artaud, San Francisco, CA
1995 Spider and the Buddha, collaboration with Sha Sha Higby, New Langdon Arts, San Francisco, CA
1995 Spider and the Buddha, collaboration with Sha Sha Higby, The Dance Palace, Pt. Reyes Station, CA
1993 Collaboration with Sha Sha Higby, 8th Street Studio, Berkeley, CA
1993 Paintings, San Geronimo Valley Community Center, San Geronimo, CA
1988 Paintings and Collages, Pt. Reyes Station, CA
1987 Tuscania e Tuscanesi, Biblioteca Comunale, Tuscania, Italy
1985 Paintings by Sherry Petrini, Artisans Gallery, Mill Valley, CA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2009 Small works Exhibit, Downtown Gallery, San Rafael CA
2001 Marin Arts Council Exhibitions Corte Madera, CA
1997 Marin Arts Council Exhibitions Corte Madera, CA
1997 Presentation 97. SOMAR Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1996 Marin Arts Council Exhibitions Corte Madera, CA
1996 Liberations by Seeing, Wilson Street Gallery, Santa Rosa, CA
1995 Marin Arts Council Exhibitions Corte Madera, CA
1994 Marin Arts Council Exhibitions Corte Madera, CA
1993 Marin Arts Council Exhibitions Corte Madera, CA
1978 Five on Paper, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
1976 MFA Show, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
1974 The Art of Women – A Panorama of Achievement, University of Kansas Museum of Art,
Lawrence, Kansas
1973 SFAI Drawing Invitational, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
COLLECTIONS
University of Kansas Museum of Art
San Francisco Foundation
