Sheila Reid

My work often challenges people's perception. And a number of my museum projects have questioned the intrinsic value of art. Also very often the discovery, or the recognition of something in my work, startles people into thinking about things in a different way.

Art is a spiritual activity for me, that nourishes both the artist and the collector. We don't completely understand it, but it has a vital force that demands that we recognize something unusual.

Mine all begins in the form of an image that I see in my mind. These pictures are so clear, the proportions and size and colors, show me how many I should make or how the project should proceed.

Once I start making the piece, the work becomes almost obsessive and I usually work 12 hours a day. The translation of my vision into an artwork, takes about two years to complete and as I make it, I begin to understand what it means and how it follows my previous work. You can see connections, but it doesn't look like things I've done before. Each series is complete in itself.

For example, this new series of collages that are called 'Plenitude' looks very different from my past work which was often structural and minimalist in color and it usually posed essential questions ab...

I studied at two universities in the USA, Wayne State University & then art at the Center For Creative Studies in Detroit. Later I studied sculpture at the Beaux Arts in Paris, France.

My first book 'Art Without Rejection' , published in 1993 was used in more than 200 universities.

Some of the museums around the world that have exhibited my works including; Palazzo Arengario in Milan, Italy;; the ICA in London; the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon; the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City; the Grand Palais in Paris; The Paper Museum in Tokyo, Japan; the Musee de Luxembourg at the Paris Senate; plus many, many others in different countries.