Sharon Weiner was born in St. Louis, Missouri. She received her B.A. from the University of Missouri and her M.F.A. from Claremont Graduate University. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Her paintings have been exhibited locally and nationally and are included in many permanent collections such as The Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR, Adobe Systems, Inc., San Jose, CA, and the Wellington Management Company, Boston, MA.

From the Artist...My painting comes out of personal experiences, including conscious and unconscious dynamics. None of this is “coded” into the work, nor do the paintings simply embody my emotions. Rather, they visualize the process of self-revelation in a kind of internal dialogue. From a family of psychoanalysts, my direct and indirect exposure to the practice of psychoanalysis has been long and sustained, providing me with an unusual awareness of my own consciousness, interaction with the world, and dreams. As a result, I know better than to recount my experience in my art; instead, I give visual form to what experiencing my life feels like – indeed, to what awareness itself, an abstract concept, feels like.

This embodiment of sensation and thought has always been the purpose of abstract art. In particular, I feel close to the transcendental tradition in postwar American abstraction, from Mark Rothko to Ross Bleckner and Philip Taaffe. Through this practice, I am able to manifest my regard for reality as a psychological rather than cultural dynamic. I see the artist’s role as restating the internal psychological object through a language of images that make that object relevant to humanity. The images themselves come from both within my imagination and from the natural environment around me.

I fabricate my paintings by pouring and manipulating paint and medium across the surface of the paintings, building up several layers of paint in the process. I also use an airbrush. Although the pouring is directed and controlled, it allows for unexpected occurrences.