Cheryl Harper
Artist
Resume		Cheryl Harper grew up in lakeside upstate New York towns and cities, deprived of sunlight. Always drawing, she left for college seeking better weather and adventure.
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		In college, she loved the work of other artists as much as making her own work, so she evolved as both an artist and a presenter of other artists. Working at museums and galleries was marked by periods of hiatus taken in order to make art.
		Trained as both an Art Historian–Curator as well as a Printmaker– Painter, She alternated between exhibiting as an artist and presenting exhibitions as a curator. Harper's work has always been informed by her curiosity about other artists as well as art history and current events. One body of work might be inspired by illuminated manuscripts, another by prehistoric symbols, and another by warring factions in a distant region of the world.
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		On this website, she presents several bodies of work, documenting the evolution of her art. Some works on the site are available for purchase.
Deer Boxes
		This body of work is a continuation of Harper's interest in “predator/prey.” She sees the world as divided into one or the other. The encroachment of man into deer habitat makes suburbanites the predator, yet we coexist by default. The imagery comes from many sources and imagery of “predator/prey," particularly with deer, is found in the earliest civilizations. The five sides afforded by these boxes allow a story to unfold through images she collected or appropriated.
		In Doe a Deer, she tells the story of a recent Christmas Eve, when, while enroute to celebrations, Harper spotted the unblemished carcass of a doe lying in repose on the sidewalk. The street, in a very dense suburban area, was divided by grassy medians and straddled by large stone houses with metal fences. Since it was a holiday, she knew the deer would still be there in the morning. Returning to the spot in the zero degree Fahrenheit sunrise to photograph it, someone had decorated it with boughs from a berry bush during the night.
		I dreamt I was a deer in headlights tells another story of her experiences on rural and suburban roads and how easy it is to relate to the deer’s predicament. Boxed In brings together fences, herds, mating, warning signs, and fawns.
Political Subjects
		Harper has worked on several political campaigns. Often her one-of a kind-prints and mixed media works, such as Prayer Rug, Carpet Bomb (private collection), made during the first Gulf War, incorporate political subject matter .
		Ballot Box documents the strange parallel paths of the two candidates, including their military service, films made promoting the men, their wives, and the baseball race that unfolded in the last months of the campaign.
		Bush Women as Topiary focuses on four women in George W.'s life and their static place within their public celebrity. It is a study for a larger work, Mix and Match: Bush Women as Topiary.
		Washington Monuments, Men Will Be Boys is a study for a larger intstallation work, Washington Monuments with Reflecting Pool. It is a reflection on an "Old Boys Club," making decisions that affect how their offices will be judged.