Over the past decade Elizabeth Sher’s artwork has been inspired by residencies she has attended out of the country, most recently in Morocco. Although she was there for an extended time, as a foreigner she was aware that her view of the country and its people were filtered. Additionally, in Arab and Moslem countries traditional windows are covered with a patterned screen so that women cannot be seen from the outside. So their views are filtered too. Morocco is a more liberal country than many but in Tetouan women could only go to one coffee shop – luckily it had the best pastries! Morocco is alive with, sounds, colors, smells and tastes. The Spice Table invites viewers to learn about 6 of the most popular spices used in medicine and cooking – and to smell them. Sher has included a selection of the drawings and small paintings that she made while in residency. When she returned to her Oakland studio, she saw what might evolve from these impressions.
ELIZABETH SHER is an artist and filmmaker working in the Bay Area of California where she is owner of I.V. Studios: Art and Film for the 21st Century. She is Professor Emeritus of Art at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco and Oakland, CA where she taught Painting and Media Arts for more than 3 decades. Her work focuses on women, art, healthy aging and the environment mixing digital and analog (handwork) modalities.
Sher’s drawings, prints, paintings and artist books have been exhibited at many university art museums and is included in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Art, The Fine Arts Museum of California, the San Jose Museums of Art, the Oakland Museum of Art, The Carnegie Mellon University Hunt Collection and the United States Embassy Collection. Sher has had solo exhibitions in the San Francisco Bay Area and nationally. Her films have been honored at film festivals nationally and internationally and aired on television in the US and abroad. Long time Bay Area Professor Emeritus (from CCA) Elizabeth Sher works in both 2 and 4D. Her films and artworks have garnered awards and been shown nationally, internationally and on TV (her films).