(8.3.2020) "Jermaine," "Sharidyn," "Sarah" and more by Sharidyn Barnes

Sharidyn Barnes (b.1995) is an artist from Dallas, Texas who received a B.A. in Studio Art at Jackson State in 2018. She is an artist who captures the personal relationships and experiences as an African American woman. She seeks to create a universal understanding by exploring the characteristic of her subjects. These ideas are made to challenge the stigma of race by shifting the conversation to the individual. he has had her worked featured in group exhibitions at Gallery 1 in Jackson Mississippi and Open Studio at SCAD. She has also participated in the Margaret Walker Creative Festival and volunteered her artistic abilities at Dallas Musuem of Art and the Mint Foundation. She is currently expected to graduate with an M.F.A from Savannah College of Art and Design in Spring 2021.

My art focuses on exploring the idea of the gaze and how it effects us. I want to switch the conversation from race to the individual. I think the most important aspect is to understand you can feel one day something about yourself, and another day feel something negative about yourself, and it does not take away the aspects of being you. I think in America black people have to deal with not only how you feel about yourself but the way others make you feel. Those feelings can so easily contradict your own self worth, you feel conflicted. It takes alot of self assuring and confidence to feel comfortable. I want my work to reflect the good days and the bad. It is not about you and your opinion but me and mine. That is the utmost importance.