Sharon Goodman

1941, Detroit

Goodman has been the recipient of a West Virginia Fellowship for the Arts, through the National Endowment for the Arts, and numerous other awards. She has had over twenty solo exhibitions and been part of over forty invitational and juried exhibitions. Sharon Goodman’s work can be found in private collections throughout the U.S. and Europe, as well as in the permanent collections of West Virginia University and the University of Charleston. Her work has been represented by galleries in New York; Pittsburgh; Cleveland; Detroit; Tampa; Hagerstown, Maryland; Rochester, New York; and Morgantown, West Virginia.

"My paintings are immediate and energetic. I want the motions of my hand to be apparent on the paper or canvas and add another dimension to the painting—a spontaneity that the viewer can feel. My work is inspired by movement and color. I have danced for many years, and movement and the body in motion inform my paintings. Nature also inspires my art, as in the curving of a leaf, the bending of a weed, or the color of rushes swaying by a pond."

"Although my paintings are not representational, I work in series that are grounded in elemental themes such as water, sky, or earth, or in places I have been. I do not expect the viewer to identify these elements in my work, only to get a sense of what the titles imply. I want the marks, the color and shapes, the brush strokes and layers on the paper or canvas to be compelling to the viewer so that their sources need not be identified."