Sharyn Sowell

Artist Biography

Confined to a fishing boat with a pair of restless toddlers and two avid fishermen, Sharyn Sowell used her husband's Swiss army knife scissors and the childrens' lunch bags to cut out Noah's ark and a zoo full of animals. Merely trying to amuse the boys, she never suspected she'd just fallen head over heels into a love affair with scissors and paper.

Thousands of sheets of paper later, Sowell's deft scissors flash, revealing a Sparrow's wing, violets in a grassy meadow, jazz musicians or children at play with the fairies. Her original designs always begin with scissors and a single sheet of paper cut free hand. She embellishes the cut paper with calligraphy, watercolor, pastels, type from her antique press, and digital enhancements.

In a tiny cottage studio in Washington, Sowell surrounds herself with snips and scraps of paper, pots of ink and glue, old family photos, birds' nests and other everyday wonders. "My work celebrates the miracles we see each day if we open our lives to simple pleasures,” says Sowell, who agrees with Hans Christian Andersen that "real life is the best fairy tale.”

Sharyn Sowell Art, Prints and Posters Collection