As a primarily self-taught artist, Sherry J. Williamson has internalized author Brene Brown’s theory, “We are all born makers; we move what we are learning from our head to our heart through our hands.” Her superpower is found at the intersection of her creativity and her empathy, where she always finds inspiration to support the creation of a more just, compassionate, and equitable world. Sherry’s multi-layered and complex style saturated in intense and often unedited color is a reminder to us all that beauty is found in messy, busy, and imperfect things, whether in art or life.

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Her early work consisted primarily of pet portrait commissions, of which 20% was donated to her favorite pet rescue. As Sherry and her wife contemplated adoption in 2012, themes related to love, family, and their hope for our world and how we all treat each other became central ideas to her creative work. In early 2017 her art began to include common themes of social justice, equality, and inclusion. Over the last few years, she has donated a portion of earnings from original art and festival sales to many non-profits sharing these similar interests including Arkansas Moms Demand Action, Arkansas Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Progressive Arkansas Women, Emerge Arkansas, The Arkansas Women’s History Institute, 100 Black Men of Greater Little Rock, Arkansas Food Bank, Together Rising, Out of the Woods Animal Rescue and other non-profits working to make our communities better.

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Sherry lives in Central Arkansas with her wife, their children, and a menagerie of pets. She is currently working on a series of anatomical hearts illustrating how we love ourselves and each other. She is also planning a first-person perspective series. The series will narrate, through color and pattern, Sherry’s role as a caregiver for the two bravest women she has ever known, her mother and her aunt. The series will portray their enduring connection as identical twins and their fighting spirit, despite the ravages of dementia.