Adria Sherman, a fiber artist living in West Windsor, has her work in West Windsor Arts Council’s “What the Fiber!” exhibit. Her art combines her loves of science, color, texture, and design. Sherman’s “Healing Fibers 2” is a handstitched multimedia collage with dye printed silk and wool, gauze bandaging, and handmade paper. It measures 20 by 28 inches and is listed for sale at $200. The opening reception is Sunday, March 9, from 4 to 6 p.m.
“Achieving a balance between expression of the left and right sides of my brain has been a dominant force in my life,” Sherman says on her website, adriasherman.com. “From the left, my formal education and primary career is as a nutrition scientist and professor. From the right side my passion for art began in childhood, was suppressed during college and graduate school, and came into full expression about 15 years ago when I combined earlier interests in visual arts and sewing by creating art.”
Sherman, who was born and raised in Philadelphia, has enjoyed art since she was a child. She took Saturday morning art classes for many years. “I wanted to be a fashion designer,” she says. “My father bought me a sewing machine and I sewed my own clothes.”
But when it came time for her to make college decisions her father had a different plan for her. “He told me that I have to be a scientist and save the world,” she says. “He thought I had the right set of skills for it.” Her father died when she was in graduate school and her mother died 10 years ago.
She graduated from Penn State with bachelor’s and doctorate degrees. A resident of West Windsor for 27 years, she moved from Illinois, where she was on the faculty at University of Illinois, when she obtained a job as a professor at Rutgers.
She met her husband, Michael, also a native of Philadelphia, before her high school graduation. A graduate of Penn State University with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture and a Ph.D. in art education, he was an associate professor of interior design at the University of Illinois from 1979 to 1987, and an associate professor of landscape architecture at Rutgers University from 1987 to 2001. He died in 2011.
Their son, Ariel, a 1996 graduate of WW-P High School, and his wife, Chandra, have a son and a daughter. Their daughter, Elisa, a 2000 graduate of WW-P High School, is married to Matthew Sautter, and they have an infant daughter.
As Sherman pursued her education and career in science, her love for art was put on hold. When her son played football for WW-PHS she did not like the way his uniform fit. “I took out my old sewing machine for the first time in years,” she says. “My husband encouraged me to buy a new one. That jersey started me sewing again, and I really enjoyed it.”
She was frustrated with commercial fabrics and learned how to dye her own fabrics. Sherman then began to make art quilts and wall hangings. “It’s my own therapy,” she says. “Currently I am focused on creating textile art through painting, printing, and dying silks. These pieces may be enhanced with hand or machine stitching, beads and/or additional layers of fabrics.”
“Each piece starts out as blank white fabric and evolves as I work on it over a period of weeks or months to express my ideas and feelings,” says Sherman on her website. “Inspiration may come from travel memories or photos, microscopic images of living and mineral matter, or pure fantasies of my mind.”
What the Fiber, West Windsor Arts Council, 952 Alexander Road, West Windsor. Opening reception, Sunday, March 9, 4 to 6 p.m. On view to May 2. 609-716-1931. www.westwindsorarts.org.
