Michael Sharp grew up in West Texas, where he spent his academic years focused on visual arts, receiving numerous awards and honors.  He went on to earn his BFA in drawing and painting from Texas Tech University with a secondary emphasis in graphic design.  After spending many years in the corporate sector, he has recently come back to his love of art, working to build a career as both a gallery artist and commercial illustrator.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My art is primarily inspired by objects and  images that  hold importance for me at a personal level, or that I feel speak to a broader societal or cultural significance.  I also like to elevate the everyday and commonplace and have them seen in a new way.  Some of the themes I am most drawn to are nostalgia, spirituality, and nature.  I present these themes through images and objects of celebration and ritual, iconography, and sentiment to honor where we find meaning and comfort in life, while also indulging in randomness and whimsy to challenge the validity of how we assign meaning and importance to the objects and environment around us.

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I like to work almost exclusively with a black and white palette.  The limited palette keeps the visual format stripped down while letting the subject remain the primary focus.  This limitation also helps me adhere more to my love of drawing over traditional painting.  Though I work primarily with representational imagery, I continue to seek the essence and deeper richness of the subject through expressive strokes and bold mark making.