Trying to categorise unique island artist Sharon Jewell, is not so easy.
She recently was recognised for her exhibition at Redland Art Gallery with her Poetic Mapping of Russell Island.
Literally, Sharon put into words what many artists feel. She has turned it into an art form.
“The Island get in, the island gets out. Language is the passage that, like water around an island, both connects and isolates a feeling-being from an expression of that feeling.”
The introduction to her Russell Island Poetic Mapping sets the stage for a descriptive piece that could only come from someone totally in tune with her surroundings.
She is not only ‘in tune’; she is also highly educated holding a degree in Visual Art that progressed to Honours, a Masters and a PHD.
Perhaps we should be calling Sharon, Dr. Sharon Jewell?
Sharon, fortunately, is not that pretentious.
She does, however, use her qualifications to be a regular lecturer in Arts at QUT (Queensland University of Technology)
Her Russell Island home has an expansive downstairs studio where Sharon turns her concepts into reality.
She is not into ‘selling’ - well, not much anyway. She is into creating; and it is definitely with a difference.
One her great delights is to come up with concepts and put them to paper in almost ‘minute’ form. There are small pieces of paper and tiny writing and sketches all over the walls with ideas, concepts and designs.
You could best describe Sharon Jewell as an environmental artist.
She really loves her island home; it has been that way since 2010.
“I feel I am coming home every time I return to Russell Island. Island life can truly be an inspiration,” she said.
“In many ways the island talks to me and it comes out in my next endeavour.”
Sharon admits to no real direction with her art.
“I do whatever takes my fancy,”
One day she could be writing away in her minute style; or the next she could be on her band saw fashioning an intricate sculpture.
So what next for Sharon Jewell?
“It probably will be more with the written word. It doesn’t take up too much space,” she said with a laugh.
Recently she has put a small island group together to explore some of her directions. They are called Canaipa Mudlines.
If you wish to know more about this imaginative group, you can go to linesinthesand.com.au
• Sharon Jewell with one of her unique sculptures!