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Biography of Sonia Showalter


She was born in Tampico, Mexico in 1947. Her artistic abilities were discovered while she was in elementary school. At age 17, she sold her first painting during a high school exhibition, Sonia pursued her love for art by attending Angel Hernandez Art Academy in Irapuato, Mexico from 1962-1966. During this time at the academy, she also study Interior Design from 1964-1966. While living in Mexico, she worked as an interior designer for many hotels, restaurants, painted privately and for public buildings such as medical offices and schools.

Sonia enjoys traditional paiting, but can do wall graphics or more realistic images. She worked in a wide range of styles that are appropiate to each comission for the client. Sonia considers herself a painter and muralist, in which she brings extensive passion in each of her works of art. Sonia describes her passion for painting as a desire that comes from inside, its part of her soul laid out on canvas. She comments "when someone takes something away from my paintings, I feel so blessed when I hear someone tell me that my painting have changed them." Her aspiration is to be able to express her style of art and change people lives through her painting.

Sonia had two exhibitions while living in Mexico, one in 1964 at the Local Irapuato Strawberry Annual Art Exhibit, and the other exhibitions was the Local Artist hosted by Ford Motor Company.Since coming to the United States in 1997, she has been persistent with her art work and murals. Currently she is volunteering her talents at Rockingham Memorial Hospital, Harrisonburg Virginia where she is painting inspirational murals in each patient room. Some of her works can be found hanging in the Dayton Learning Center, Dayton Virginia. She has recently donated paintings for the American Cancer Society and for an African American Center in Harrisonburg, Virginia.Sonia became a United State Citizen in 2005 and currently lives in Harrisonburg Virginia with her husband, daughter and granddaughter.