Check out Cathy Sheeter’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cathy Sheeter.

Cathy, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
While many artists know from an early age that they want to grow up to be an artist, I was not one of those people. I always expected that I would go into some scientific field, and in fact, my college degree from Oregon State University is in animal sciences, with specialization in genetics. I still feel that my brain operates more as a scientist than as a typical artist. Finding myself working full time as an animal artist occurred through several serendipitous occurrences.

Firstly, it was discovering an online community called Wetcanvas in 2001, which renewed my desire to continue on with my art, which I had just done casually as a hobby. Next was falling back in love with my current medium of Scratchboard in 2004. Following those two things I continued with my scratchboard just at a local level until 2008, when I happened to go into a museum in Colorado that was hosting the Society of Animal Artists touring show. I was blown away by the work and couldn’t believe it when I saw scratchboard hanging in a museum show! That fall I applied for SAA and was accepted at their higher level of signature artist. In 2009 my work graced the cover of the SAA exhibition catalog and I won their highest honor, an Award of Excellence.

From there on I started entering a number of national and international exhibitions and won numerous awards right off the bat. I remained active on Wetcanvas scratchboard artists forum and in 2008 one of the members found a gallery in Indianapolis willing to host a scratchboard show. Our online scratchboard community continued to get together once a year in various places across the United States after that first event. In 2010 one of the members, said “Why don’t we start a scratchboard organization?” and that was the start of the formation of the International Society of Scratchboard Artists (ISSA), which is now a 501c3 non-profit with about 220 international members representing about 15 countries. We have held scratchboard shows across the US and also in Canada and Australia. I am one of only a handful of Master Scratchboard Artists, as accredited by ISSA, and am also proud to be the current president of that organization.

Like many people, for quite a while I had another job outside of my art, and I spent almost ten years as a dog groomer, doing my art part-time. Through support of friends and family and eventually a move where grooming was not fruitful, I was launched into doing my art full time in 2013. In 2015 I was offered an artist residency in New Jersey at the Blauvelt Wildlife Art Museum, which lasted until summer of 2018. And now this coming year I venture into a new avenue at Celebration of Art in Scottsdale.

Part of my accent has been meeting the right people, who connected me with shows or events. Gallery representation has only been a small part of my career, as I have found that many people are still unfamiliar with my medium and it is best when I am there to talk with them personally. Every year is a new adventure in this crazy life as an artist.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
My primary medium is Scratchboard. For anyone not familiar with the medium, it is a subtractive art form. It starts with a three-layer composite made up of a support layer on the bottom, which is covered by smooth white clay and then topped with black or dark-colored ink. The artist uses a variety of abrasive tools to scratch the top layer of ink off and reveal the white clay that is underneath. Works can be left black and white or colored with transparent mediums (watercolors or inks most commonly). Some of the tools used for scratching away the ink include xactos, fiberglass brushes, sandpaper, and tattoo needles.

I feel in love with scratchboard from the first ones I did in a high school art class. Animals were always my preferred subject matter and I loved that scratchboard scratches looked just like animal fur! I enjoyed the drama of the animal emerging from the dark, and how I could use dramatic lighting to have lost and found edges. I also love working in a unique medium that can make a real impression on people.

Most of my work is close to photorealism, but every line is drawn by hand. I love that even when you are very close to a scratchboard, the effect is highly realistic. Animals remain my preferred subject matter and I hope my work draws the viewer into the soul and character of the animals I draw. I am an advocate for nature conservation and believe my artwork can help raise awareness about wildlife, habitat, and the importance of preserving wild spaces for the next generation.

Have things improved for artists? What should cities do to empower artists?
I do think that being an artist today is a very competitive industry. There are many really excellent artists out there, working in all styles and mediums and the internet has made it so that collectors can see more artists and artworks than ever before. In many cases, the traditional gallery has taken a back seat for artists who predominately sell online. Social media advertising has become as important, or more important than print ads in magazines. I, myself, am still fairly young and somewhat new to the industry, only having been creating my art professionally for ten years, but I often feel like my generation and the ones coming after may place less emphasis on owning something original and often spend extra income on the newest technology rather than on artwork. However, the bit of optimism within me believes that there will always be those out there who have a true appreciation for originality and owning something no one else has, and knowing it was created by hand. I don’t know if I have been in the industry long enough to see trends, as I feel like one artists have a great year one year, while others have a poor year in that same time period. I believe marketing with social media will remain very important to artists into the coming years.

Publicity is always beneficial to emerging and established artists, so articles, such as this one are always great! Grants and public art projects can also help out some artists. Keeping people involved and impassioned about art, in general, are also highly important! As arts are removed more and more from elementary and high schools, the community can step in and hopefully fill this void.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
My artwork can be found on my website at www.cathysheeter.com and also at Celebration of Art in Scottsdale from January 7-March 24, 2019 (www.celebrateart.com). I am represented by Equis Gallery in Red Bluff, NY and do a variety of western and wildlife art shows across the US every year. You can see a list of many of my upcoming events for 2019 on my web site. I teach workshops on scratchboard at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum Art Institute in spring and fall. The ASDM will also be hosting the International Society of Scratchboard Artists annual exhibition again in the fall/winter of 2020, a great chance to see my work and also those of many other world-class scratchboard artists.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cathysheeter.com
• Phone: 303-717-2138
• Email: info@cathysheeter.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Cathy-Sheeter-Fine-Arts-104516909592151/

Image Credit:
Portrait of me by Andrae K. Acerra; All others Copyright Cathy Sheeter

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