My Experience:
Creating the painting of Martin Benitez Torres was very moving for me. I really wanted to capture his essence, which was not easy since I didn’t know him personally. I found a video on his Facebook page that he had posted just hours before the shooting, and his smile was so incredible that I knew it was important to portray his warmth. I feel like I did achieve a good likeness and I hope that it brings some comfort to his loved ones when they receive the piece.
Bio:
For over 20 years, Sharon Shapiro’s figurative paintings and works on paper have been exhibited in numerous venues including shows in Atlanta, Chicago, Boston, New York, Los Angeles and London. Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at {Poem88} Gallery in Atlanta, GA; Brenau University in Gainesville, GA; and Second Street Gallery in Charlottesville, VA. In addition to being published in catalogues produced for these solo exhibitions as well as a hardbound catalogue for a group exhibition examining female identity in contemporary art published by the University of Central Missouri, her work has been featured in three issues of New American Paintings, and as the cover image for Volume 39. Shapiro has been a resident at Jentel Artist Residency, Banner, WY; Ragdale Foundation, Lake Forest, IL; the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Amherst, VA; the Ucross Foundation, Sheridan, WY; and the Hambidge Center for Arts and Sciences, Rabun Gap, GA and is a past recipient of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship. Her work is in a number of important collections throughout the United States, such as The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta, GA and the Tullman Collection, Chicago, IL. Shapiro holds a BFA from the Atlanta College of Art and currently lives and works outside of Charlottesville, VA.