User:Sherburn LaBelle/sandbox

Sherburn LaBelle
Brenda Sherburn LaBelle, known professionally as Sherburn LaBelle, is an American sculptor and writer known for creating sculptures in urban and natural settings that point to a political and environmental discourse. Sherburn LaBelle’s work is interested in nurturing an artistic experience wherein, she often integrates impulses of light and textural surfaces in her sculptures by using broken, fractured or folded forms that can reconnect people to the core of art, nature and history. Her writing explores art theory and criticism from an artist's point of view. She presently lives and works in California.

Early Life & Education
Sherburn LaBelle was born in Plymouth, New Hampshire. Her enthusiasm for making sculpture as well as her curiosity for nature started when she was very young. She first got introduced to art as a high school student but left school in the early 1970's to apprenticed with the prominent English sculptor and instructor, Robin Binning in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Binning was awarded in the early 70’s residency at the distinguished MacDowell Coloney in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Binning eventually became Sherburn LaBelle’s mentor in sculpture. During the mid 70’s Binning played a huge role in her becoming a professional sculptor and artist.

She studied fine arts and design at the New England School of Art & Design, Boston, Massachusetts, completing the foundation courses. Sherburn LaBelle was part of a group of professional artists selected for the 1982 Festival of Alternatives in Art at the State University of New York (SUNY), Binghamton, a school where she later enrolled in the Foundry program. Eventually she earned a Bachelor's in Fine Art, at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio in 1990. Before she completed her BFA she had her first major one-person show in 1987 at the Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, New York.

She was also awarded an Art-In-Residency from the Franklin Mint Foundation through the Clay Studio in Philadelphia.

Art Work
Sherburn LaBelle’s sculptures and drawings have been exhibited in many group shows in various parts of the world - The Americas, Africa and Asia. She refers to the relationship between the viewer and the work of art as “the invisible bubble” which is “what I call the state of mind that you experience when viewing a work of Art.” The material she works with include stone, bronze and clay. She also does collage-drawings. A lover of birds, Sherburn LaBelle spent over a decade raising orphaned baby hummingbirds in the San Francisco Bay Area through Wildcare, an organization for wildlife rehabilitation and nature education. She now is retired. She completed a variety of pastel drawings and collages about birds and still publishes the blog, Birdie Girl exploring links between the arts and birds.

Perception of Art
Much of her sculpture is about the relationship between nature and people. She has a fragmented style that connects, disconnects and reconnects as the viewer walks around her work. Sherburn LaBelle believes art to be a vital part of culture and describes it as something which “can create new paradigms that can help all of us make better choices in our lives.” She says “Our existing cultural threads that help us through unfamiliar experiences are so frayed in our society that knowledge comes to a dead end rather than be woven into a new layer of experience.” She believes art can help mend these frayed cultural threads.

She strives to give voice to this process of connecting cultural threads through Art. In 2001, she founded Save World Draw, a platform about preserving cultural integrity and facilitating cultural sensitivity for art as a vital and living thing.

Writing
She established an online web page after 9-11 called the Potentials of Art, where various creative writers can post their marvelous perspectives on art. Sherburn LaBelle also writes art criticism and is working on a manifesto about contemporary art.

Personal Life
Sherburn LaBelle’s first husband is a well-known poet, Peter Sherburn-Zimmer. They had three children. Years later after her children had left home and had their own lives, she remarried Russell William LaBelle II, an animal enthusiast and environmentalist. She currently lives with him in Northern California. The naturalist, Sy Montgomery, wrote a book "Birdology" © 2011, about birds and one chapter is dedicated to Sherburn LaBelle and her work with hummingbirds.

Sherburn LaBelle currently is the coordinator and facilitator of Save World Draw. Sherburn LaBelle strives to touch the hearts & minds of people by facilitating art to inspire positive change and to preserve cultural integrity.

Exhibition
Sherburn LaBelle’s first solo show of her sculpture and drawings was held at an alternative place for art called Conklin Avenue, Binghamton, New York in 1987. It was titled: “Art from the Shadows” and also about showing work in meaningful places with a context that adds to the art experience. This won her a one-person show at the prestigious Arnot Art Museum in upstate New York!

Awards

 * 1987 One-Year Artist-In-Resident Fellowship. Sponsored by the Franklin Mint through the Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA
 * 1987 Rodin Museum, Philadelphia, PA. Special Handling Permit awarded to directly work from Rodin’s clay maquettes and bronzes on site. Permission to copy by drawings and modeling small clay pieces. Permission to enter one hour before museum opens, work through morning hours.
 * 1989 Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Brooklyn, NY. Money For Women Artists: Sculpture & Drawing
 * 1992 Merit Award, California State Fair, Sacramento, CA
 * 1996 Special Commendation Award for Work & Instruction for the Cambodian Community. Alameda Board of Supervisors. Oakland, CA
 * 2001 Belize Audubon Society. Belize, Central America. Awarded Internship to design and build an education exhibit about bird migration at Crooked Tree Bird Sanuary.

Reviews and Publications

 * 2007 / Article, Froglog Newsletter, Saving The World One Drawing At A Time,
 * 2009 / Article, Daraja Academy, Kenya. “The Highlight of the Week” by Director Jason Doherty
 * 2011 / Book, Birdology by Sy Montgomery, (one chapter about Brenda’s work with hummingbirds) Simon & Schuster, ISBN 978-1416569848
 * 2012 / Book, Selected Poetry English, Urdu, Persian & Punjabi by Tahir Khan Arzani طاہر خان ارضانی / Book design & Introduction by Brenda Sherburn LaBelle
 * 2013 / Book, Owl Always Be Waiting, Poetry by Brenda Sherburn LaBelle
 * 2015/ June / Article, Handle With Care, from Reader’s Digest

Further Links

 * Montgomery, Sy (2011). "Sherburn Labelle”. Birdology
 * Jennifer Upshaw. Marin Independent Journal. Marin Snapshot: “Fairfax Artist Finds Calling As Foster Mom for Hummingbirds”
 * Froglog Newsletter, Saving The World One Drawing At A Time

General

 * Save World Draw
 * Froglog Newsletter, Saving The World One Drawing At A Time

Art

 * A Sculpture Park
 * Oswego Art Guild, NY
 * Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, New York
 * Philadelphian Museum of Art
 * Sale’s Gallery
 * Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA
 * Lawrence/Rosemont Gallery
 * Creative Growth Art Center