Register Art Exhibit Opens March 8 at Chipola
Updated: March 3, 2022
A Gallery Opening featuring the works of the former Marianna resident Sharon Register is set for Tuesday, March 8, at 6 p.m., in the Chipola College Center for the Arts Gallery.
At first encounter Sharon Register's art undeniably evokes emotion. These are not hollow or fragile emotions she summons, but rather durable and rich emotions that have been tempered throughout a life fully lived. Her new exhibit, “My Journey. Life, Loss and Healing” takes her audience through her own personal struggle through the grief process in the loss of her son to substance abuse. She describes herself with the words of Anna Funder, “She was brave and strong and broken all at once.”
Register was born with a rare eye condition that left her unable to see out of one eye. She overcame this condition and her work is a grateful celebration of the visual spectrum that she never takes for granted. She feels the power of the visual world as much as she sees it.
If her painting is the fruit of her soul, then the soil of that fruit is the American South. Rust red Alabama clay and a good ole hometown gospel service play an equal part as artistic inspirations. Indeed, Register not only sees in those buds of cotton that she paints the intrinsic beauty of that great Southern flower, but she also bears witness to a fundamental thread in the divine garment God has used in clothing the world. Her lifelong love for painting is clear in the vibrant way she weaves together acrylic on canvas and mixed media.
Register lives in Columbia, Tennessee and in her studio she mines life’s most valuable experiences to produce artwork that is an artistic practice that is no less than prayer. Her studio is her spiritual haven and her painting a textured and visual history of her own faith. “I feel alive and present when I paint. Some days it is the quiet that draws me to a canvas allowing me to pour my heart out. Other times I put music on and celebrate or contemplate on a movement or a feeling. The music is magic to me and can change my mood or expression. Other days silence can help me go deeper – there I can pray, think, feel and be who I really am as a person.”
The exhibit also will be available for viewing after the opening, Monday-Thursday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., through April 8.
For more information about the Center for the Arts Gallery exhibit and hours, call 718-2277.