{"id":31063,"date":"2025-11-22T10:43:35","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T10:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/?p=31063"},"modified":"2025-11-25T00:09:43","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T00:09:43","slug":"elizabeth-sher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/2025\/11\/22\/elizabeth-sher\/","title":{"rendered":"Elizabeth Sher"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"31063\" class=\"elementor elementor-31063\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-b949c0d e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"b949c0d\" data-element_type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-d97d555 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"d97d555\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.21.0 - 22-05-2024 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\tWhere do you live: Oakland, California<br>\nYour education: BA and MA in Art from the University of California, Berkeley<br>\nYour discipline: Still and moving images (painting, drawing, and digital work such as Photoshop)<br>\n<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.elizabethsherart.com\" target=\"_blank\">Website<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/elizabethsher_artandfilm\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a><\/strong>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-7b8e702 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"7b8e702\" data-element_type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-b056ba3 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"b056ba3\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h4><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-31065 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Elizabeth-Sher-Sher-Head-Shot.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1050\" height=\"1470\" srcset=\"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Elizabeth-Sher-Sher-Head-Shot.jpg 1050w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Elizabeth-Sher-Sher-Head-Shot-214x300.jpg 214w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Elizabeth-Sher-Sher-Head-Shot-731x1024.jpg 731w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Elizabeth-Sher-Sher-Head-Shot-768x1075.jpg 768w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Elizabeth-Sher-Sher-Head-Shot-600x840.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1050px) 100vw, 1050px\" \/><\/h4><h4 style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You began your career working with fine art printmaking and oil painting before moving into mixed media and digital work. What motivated that evolution in your artistic practice?<\/h4><p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019ve always loved experimenting with new \u201ctoys\u201d for artists. When technology first entered the art world, especially in still images, it was a hard sell. Some people were appalled &#8211; just as many are now with the emergence of AI in art. I haven\u2019t ventured into that realm myself, though I know artists doing fascinating work with it.<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It helps to remember that when photography was new, the major artists of the time all \u201cplayed\u201d with it. They didn\u2019t all become photographers, but they were intrigued by what it could do and how it might influence their art. Degas\u2019 cropped horse paintings, for example, could not have happened without the camera. And yet it took more than a century for photography to be accepted as a true fine art medium. People resist change; there were even arguments about whether acrylics were legitimate compared to oil paint.<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Digital tools opened new creative possibilities for me, allowing me to do things that would have been impossible otherwise. Still, I always begin with an analog image, whether a photograph, drawing, or painting, and then manipulate it digitally to arrive at the final work. I also continue to make images entirely without technology. My foundation is in painting, drawing, and printmaking, and I still love the tactile experience of mark-making and materials.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-31066 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Elizabeth-Sher-Self-Portrait-Still-A-Sucker.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1050\" height=\"1336\" srcset=\"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Elizabeth-Sher-Self-Portrait-Still-A-Sucker.jpg 1050w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Elizabeth-Sher-Self-Portrait-Still-A-Sucker-236x300.jpg 236w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Elizabeth-Sher-Self-Portrait-Still-A-Sucker-805x1024.jpg 805w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Elizabeth-Sher-Self-Portrait-Still-A-Sucker-768x977.jpg 768w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Elizabeth-Sher-Self-Portrait-Still-A-Sucker-600x763.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1050px) 100vw, 1050px\" \/> Elizabeth Sher | Self Portrait Still a Sucker<\/p><h4 style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nature and technology seem to coexist and compete in your work. How do you approach balancing these two forces?<\/h4><p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have a small cottage on the Russian River in Sonoma County, six miles from the Pacific Ocean. Being surrounded by trees and water provides a perfect counterpoint to my industrial neighborhood in Oakland. That duality, nature versus technology, is a conversation that runs through my work.<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To explore it, I created a series called Crossing the Digital Divide. At the beach, I photographed large rocks where I perceived images of heads and animals. In the studio, I combined those photos with paint, emphasizing their anthropomorphic qualities and incorporating enlarged pixels into the compositions. The tension between the organic and the digital became a metaphor for coexistence and competition between nature and technology.<\/p><h4 style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Humor and feminist consciousness are central elements of your art. How do these themes emerge during your creative process?<\/h4><p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When I first learned about feminism, I thought, \u201cAh! So that\u2019s what the problem has been &#8211; sexism!\u201d It was a revelation, and it shaped both my art and my teaching. During my long tenure at CCA, I tried to be a mentor and role model for all my students, but especially for the women.<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although I\u2019m a serious person, I\u2019ve always had the curse (or the blessing) of being easily amused. I see humor (or dark humor) in most things and believe that laughter is the best medicine. Humor can open doors that blunt force can\u2019t. Back when I was in school, we were told, \u201cArt isn\u2019t funny.\u201d My education was rich in color, composition, and line quality, but firmly rooted in the white, male, Eurocentric canon.<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Later, I met several brilliant women narrative painters whose work was both hilarious and beautifully constructed. Still, painting humor didn\u2019t quite work for me. Then I made my first film, The Training, a short mock \u201chow-to\u201d on toilet training your child. When audiences laughed exactly where I wanted them to, I realized I had found my medium for humor. While there is sometimes wit and playfulness in my two-dimensional work and artist books, humor truly comes alive for me in moving images.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-31067 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Elizabeth-Sher-Rebound.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1050\" height=\"1362\" srcset=\"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Elizabeth-Sher-Rebound.jpg 1050w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Elizabeth-Sher-Rebound-231x300.jpg 231w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Elizabeth-Sher-Rebound-789x1024.jpg 789w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Elizabeth-Sher-Rebound-768x996.jpg 768w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Elizabeth-Sher-Rebound-600x778.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1050px) 100vw, 1050px\" \/> Elizabeth Sher | Rebound<\/p><h4 style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You have an impressive history as both an artist and educator. How has teaching at CCA shaped your artistic vision?<\/h4><p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I think I\u2019ve learned as much from my students as they\u2019ve learned from me. Their energy, curiosity, and willingness to experiment have inspired me continuously. Teaching also deepened my technical knowledge, especially in areas like perspective, which I had to learn in order to teach it. Collaborating with colleagues on reviews and committees further expanded my understanding of art from multiple angles.<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I never sought a leadership role at CCA because my art practice always came first. Balancing teaching, family, and studio time wasn\u2019t always easy. Sometimes it meant skipping family outings, openings, or lectures, but making time for my own creative work was essential. The studio has always been my true center.<\/p><h4 style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As both a filmmaker and visual artist, what do moving images allow you to express that still imagery does not\u2014and vice versa?<\/h4><p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Time and timing are what distinguish moving images from still ones. Juxtaposed scenes create their own rhythm and narrative. Humor also comes across more naturally in film, and I love that audiences laugh exactly where I hope they will.<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When I began making films (long before the internet, TikTok, or Instagram) many people found \u201cart\u201d intimidating. But everyone was comfortable with movies and TV. That broader, more democratic audience appealed to me.<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The gallery world, then and now, can be hierarchical, subjective, and often sexist. Having a show in a bar or caf\u00e9 was considered beneath a museum exhibition. But I could screen a film anywhere: in a bar, at a college, or in a space I rented myself. I could promote it, reach hundreds of viewers, and even get it shown on television. That kind of freedom was thrilling.<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Still, I remain deeply tied to visual art. I love looking at it, and I\u2019m always amazed when an image I make, entirely from my own impulse, resonates with someone else. Art\u2019s ability to connect across time and culture is endlessly powerful.<\/p><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-31068 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Elizabeth-Sher-Portrait-Of-The-Artist-Still-A-Sucker.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1050\" height=\"1332\" srcset=\"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Elizabeth-Sher-Portrait-Of-The-Artist-Still-A-Sucker.jpg 1050w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Elizabeth-Sher-Portrait-Of-The-Artist-Still-A-Sucker-236x300.jpg 236w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Elizabeth-Sher-Portrait-Of-The-Artist-Still-A-Sucker-807x1024.jpg 807w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Elizabeth-Sher-Portrait-Of-The-Artist-Still-A-Sucker-768x974.jpg 768w, https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Elizabeth-Sher-Portrait-Of-The-Artist-Still-A-Sucker-600x761.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1050px) 100vw, 1050px\" \/><\/p><h4 style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your works are included in major public collections and have been shown internationally. How do different audiences respond to your blend of technology and personal narrative?<\/h4><p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When I first began integrating technology into my still and moving images, it was met with skepticism, much like the current debate around AI. Digital tools have since opened extraordinary possibilities, but for me, they\u2019re always in service of the image. I still begin with an analog source \u2013 a photo, drawing, or painting &#8211; and build from there. I also continue to make work entirely by hand.<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With film, technology has made editing and special effects far easier, but the foundation must always be a strong narrative and well-shot footage. As the saying goes, \u201cgarbage in, garbage out.\u201d Fortunately, audiences tend to respond to the work itself rather than the tools behind it, which is exactly what I hope for.<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Making films helped me find my voice. I didn\u2019t know the rules when I started, so I was free to ignore them. That experience liberated me from the constraints of the Western canon, so rooted in Eurocentrism and sexism, and allowed me.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Where do you live: Oakland, California Your education: BA and MA in Art from the University of California, Berkeley Your discipline: Still and moving images (painting, drawing, and digital work such as Photoshop) Website | Instagram You began your career working with fine art printmaking and oil painting before moving into mixed media and digital [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31063"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31770,"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31063\/revisions\/31770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visualartjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}