I’d like to take this moment to welcome you to my online studio and to say thanks for visiting.

You know, a lot of my friends, who are empty nesters, find great pleasure in planning excursions to unfamiliar ports-o-calls and spend a good deal of their time doing just that. They can’t understand why this activity holds no excitement for me. They see me in my studio busy at work day in and day out and just shake their heads in disbelief…they simply don’t understand this at all. They don’t understand that each day, within these walls there exists a world of challenges, excitement, creativity, more than they will find traveling the world over. I’m so very `blessed’ to be able to spend my days right here, doing what I’m doing.

Inspiration is the stuff from which dreams are dreamed and images created and my `people’ is where I draw mine. The images you have just seen in the `gallery’ are from my SISTERS OF THE SUN series, probably the most successful body of work I’ve done so far in my twenty five year career. Now, however, I’m expanding this series to include all the indigenous peoples from the sun countries of the world titled: THEIR PLACE IN THE SUN. This will not only include my friends from here in the Southwest, Mexico and South America but India, Africa, Hawaii and the islands of the South Pacific, etc. I’ll begin just as soon as I finish my last painting for the OSW museum exhibition in April (see calendar) which should be the end of March.

Inspiration comes easy, for these subjects are so strong, so vital, so colorful I find I have to hold myself down from becoming too exuberant in my applications. They demand large formats, with bright, bold brushstrokes on life size canvases. My sizes have ranged from 36x36 to 72x144 which I call `canvas murals’.

My work has drawn folks from everywhere, from the models I recreate on canvas to those who come to see it. And now, with this unbelievable means of instant communication, the internet, the world is here in my studio. With just the flick of a switch I can talk with and show my work to everyone from everywhere.

This is a small beginning of a newsletter called: THE STATE OF THE ARTS QUARTERLY. It is designed to help us get to know each other better, whether you’re a collector or an artist or just plain crazy about this creative stuff and would like to communicate with one who’s been crazy about it all her life. If you have some timely info you feel we should present or if you’d just like to introduce yourself… I’d like to hear from you.

Watch for a complete version beginning in May! I’ll close with an open invitation to visit me again and hope to hear from you soon……….

maria sharylen