Artist Statement
The action and attention required in observation based drawing cultivates a pathway for an intimate connection between the drawer, the subject and the drawing. It’s a responsive activity that allows for the possibility of knowing akin to tenderly holding and touching. It creates both love and empathy for my subjects. It makes me all the more human. I am linked together with the struggles and triumphs of my subjects. I am myself but also the flower, the bird, the wolf. I am myself but I am also you. I see the physical realities of our earthbound existence and our relationship to all that we evolved with and through. I believe this awareness is a key to cultivating a future of mutual survival and thriving for ourselves, our planet and all its inhabitants.
Standing in front of my paper, my left hand holding a few drawing tools, my right hand holds a soft cotton rag infused with mica powder and charcoal. The air and the paper’s surface begin to sparkle as I gently push the rag along to create a tonal gesture of my subject. My eyes at first searching for shape, transition to observing details of light and shadow. From the moment I begin to focus I become more aware of my body, my breathing, my stance as all myself is directed toward the study and understanding of the subject. I strive to articulate the unique characteristics of each subject and illustrate a recognizable likeness.
The drawings accumulate and I see and feel the relationships between seemingly disparate subjects. How is this human body like a tree? How is a human experience of loss like a tree losing a limb? How is a hand like the blossom of a flower reaching toward the light or toward connection to other? Further, via collage and use of other media, I orchestrate the relationships I see between people, plants, animals within hybrid landscapes on wood panels imbued with color accentuating the grain patterns and curiously explore how we might continue to evolve to more overtly display analogous ideas, emotions and experiences to that of our environment and our wild counterparts.
ABOUT the ARTIST
ABOUT the ARTIST
Sheila Metcalf Tobin is an artist who has spent her life in search of connection. As an only child and only grandchild she spent a lot of time exploring alone outside. As a very young girl, she stood in her great grandmother’s garden watching a Monarch butterfly gracefully flutter among the Phlox and Lantana flowers. The moment was filled with wonder and yearning, flooded with an awareness of feeling related to, in kinship with this creature so utterly different from herself. It was a knowing, she was discouraged to trust but it has remained a core experience that she draws upon heavily to navigate her life and work.
Sheila holds a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago but long before her formal education began she fell in love with the practice of drawing. The focus and attention required in observation based drawing cultivates connection between the drawer and the subject and opens the possibility of knowing akin to tenderly holding and touching, fostering both love and empathy. All of Sheila’s work begins with drawing as a process to explore and capture an encounter like the one in her great grandmother's garden. Her drawings expand into compositions on paper, wood panels and walls with the use of a variety of media, collage and decal installations that attempt to convey a deep love of the world and the beautiful complexity of the kinship we share with our wild counterparts. Sheila’s work has been exhibited nationally, internationally and locally in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area and is included in many private collections.
Teaching & Exhibition Resume
Education
1995 The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, Master of Fine Arts
1991 The Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, Maryland, Bachelor of Fine Arts
Professional Experience (selected)
2014~present Department Chair, Merritt College Arts Department, Merritt College, Oakland California
2013~present Full Time Art Instructor Merritt College, Oakland California
2001~2013 Adjunct Art Faculty, Laney College, Oakland California
Selected Exhibitions
2024
Cut Paste Create: The Art of Collage, The Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek California
Lost Wild, Curator Marie Cameron, The Whitney Modern, Los Gatos, California
ArtsThrive 2024, Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico
2023
The Space Between, Curator by Karen Gutfreund, ARC Gallery, San Francisco, California
Devasting Loves & Transcendent Hatreds, Abrams Claghorn Gallery, Albany, California
Kinship with Birds in Flight or Plight, WEAD Online Exhibition
The DeYoung Open 2023, DeYoung Museum, San Francisco California
Bright Side, Jen Tough Gallery, Santa Fe New Mexico
Solo Exhibition, diPietro Todd Salon, San Fransisco California
2023 Spring Collective Exhibition, Jen Tough Gallery, Santa Fe New Mexico
What Are We Grateful For, Sweetie’s Art Bar, San Francisco California
2022
Connections, Old People’s Bizarre, Berkeley California
In My Backyard, Gearbox Gallery, Oakland California
The Feminine Journey, Beseder Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
Red, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, California
Water is Life, San Francisco Women Artists Gallery, San Francisco, California
Land, Sea, Sky, Artist Alliance Online Exhibition, Curator: Emily Wilker
Artist’s Vision 2022, Marin Society of Artists, Online Exhibition
2021
Prayer for the Western Monarch, Cedar Street Gallery, Berkeley, California
2020
The Ground Upon Which We Stand, Abrams Claghorn Gallery, Albany, California
2019
Evolutions and Reconfigurations, The Lightroom, Berkeley, California
Wander, Connect, Reflect, Studios Eleven, Oakland, California
2018
Berkeley Civic Arts Commission Grant Project, Residing Here: Public Portrait Project
National Night Out, Solano Stroll and Berkeley Farmers Market, Berkeley California
All the Art We Make, Merritt College Gallery, Oakland, California
2017
She Spoke, Ex Post, Prague, Czech Republic
Nasty Women Oakland, Omi Gallery, Oakland, California
Almost Family, Fiction Science Gallery, San Francisco, California
2016
Peralta Figurative Arts Faculty Exhibition, June Steingart Gallery, Oakland, California
Women’s HerStory Exhibition, June Steingart Gallery, Oakland, California
2015
17th Annual Show of Merritt, Merritt College Gallery, Oakland, California
Summer Show 2015, Mothership Hackermoms, Oakland, California
Summer of Love, PVCC Gallery, Charlottesville, Virginia
Awards and Honors
2022 Second Prize, Artists Vision 2022, Juror Jen Tough
2019 Top 5 List, SF Open Studios Exhibition, Juror Patience Yi
2018 Residing Here: Public Portrait Project, Featured in the Community Section of Berkeleyside
https://www.berkeleyside.com/2018/08/28/watch-residing-here-art-project-is-a-love-letter-to-berkeley
2018 Panel Member, Women’s History Month, Laney College, Oakland California
2017 Berkeley Civic Arts Program Grant Recipient
Selected Publications
2024 Autre, Nurturing Nature in Lost Wild: Art on the Edge of the Anthropocene by Chimera Mohammadi
2023 Women United Art Magazine, Issue V, Autumn 2023
2022 Contemporary Artist, Issue I, Autumn 2022
2018 Residing Here: Public Portrait Project, Featured in the Community Section of Berkeleyside
https://www.berkeleyside.com/2018/08/28/watch-residing-here-art-project-is-a-love-letter-to-berkeley
