Sheryl Ellinwood

Sheryl Ellinwood writes: "First and foremost, art is communication, not a display of technical mastery, but the conveyance of an idea."

After "a strict religious upbringing, coupled with a 12 year business career, raised ... doubts about values ...practices ...and underlying beliefs of the society that had instilled those values," Ellinwood turned to art. Assisted by scholarships, she graduated from the University of Toledo with a BFA in 1991. Then, with a graduate fellowship to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, she pursued her MFA, graduating in 1994, Coming to Iowa to visit her father, she liked the area around Lake Red Rock and decided to settle and build her studio where she sustains herself as a professional glass-blower part of each year, then concentrates on her art as a sculptor the remaining months.

Looking at Ellinwood's sculptures, a viewer feels the presence of an artist who takes ideas seriously. Of general expertise in the making of art, Ellinwood writes: "Inattention to detail, poor craftsmanship, and mechanization interfere with the content of the work in effect by becoming part of the content. This interference not only prohibits the viewer from being able to enter totally into the work, ....(it) misdirects the reading of the work...." Ellinwood's invitational exhibitions include galleries in Appleton, Toledo, Cincinnati, Quincy, Peoria, Carbondale, and Indianapolis. Her work was included in Group Exhibitions in Kentucky, Ohio, Iowa, New York, Michigan and Kanazawa, Japan, and was purchased for collections including those of Amoco Corporation and several university galleries.

Her recent biographical statement closes with: "It is in the pursuit of meaning that I continue the journey. Through my art I share my discoveries." Her admirers, who appreciate these discoveries, will be happy to follow Ellinwood's journey wherever it takes her.