Texas-based artist Sheryl J. Duncan, has taught art in the public school system for 16 years, and although she has a degree in fine arts, she will tell you that she only really started learning when she began teaching high school art.
Sheryl has faced some serious health issues that seem to be taking her out of teaching, and while she has created art for many years, she is relatively new to sharing her work with the public.
Her health challenges have caused an evolution of her art style. Sheryl began working predominantly with ink and monochromatic color schemes in 2012, the same year she was given the first of several rare medical diagnosis’. As she has continued to work through years of chronic pain, she has found an outlet in sharing her experiences through her small ink sketches, many of which explore coping with chronic pain when answers and understanding are hard to find.
Sheryl has made a niche for herself in her word portraits. She creates incredibly intricate portraits using only words, often the subject’s own words. Many of these portraits are memorial portraits, but she has also explored her portraits as a snapshot in time.
Sheryl describes herself as a “mark-maker.” She especially enjoys portraiture, using simple marks such as letters or hatching, and watching them come together to form something as complex as the human face. “I think there's a beauty in the break-down of something so complicated. It feels similar to what I've experienced with my health and having to just go back to the basics and try to put it all together again in a new way to make some sort of sense of my life and how to function with a different body. These pieces also give me some sort of control. I’ve watched my attention to detail increase exponentially the last few years. I attribute that in large part to the lack of control I feel in my body and my life.”
Sheryl founded Wren Wilder Studio in 2015 to enable her to try on some different wings after a year in which her own physical body dealt with learning to walk again and sensations coming back as constant pain. Here she continues to explore and evolve her style and ideas. She is currently creating portraits of today’s newsmakers and notables as well as various commissions.
Sheryl’s most recent honor was being invited to attend an exquisite dinner and art show of President G.W. Bush, and present him with her word portrait of President George H.W. Bush composed of the words of his eulogy by his son.