Shari Zimmermann is a graphic designer and artist living in Delano, MN. A founding member of the Delano Artist Guild and Gallery Maple Plain Artist Co-op, and a member of the former Women’s Art Resources of Minnesota (W.A.R.M.), and current member and Director of the Buffalo Artist Guild, and advocate of Maple Grove Arts Center, Shari displays her work in Delano, MN and Buffalo, MN local businesses, Twin Cities area galleries, and her online gallery at sharizartanddesign.com. Shari has contributed to shows at Flow Art Space, Your Art’s Desire, Coloplast, The Paul Whitney Larson Gallery, The Show Gallery Lowertown, Studio 144, The Diana E. Murphy United States Courthouse, The Gallery by Board & Batten and Maple Grove Arts Center.

There is something intensely personal about completing a painting, especially a portrait – spending time with a form, whether it’s a person, a building or an animal, and investigating what’s unique about that form. By the time I have completed a piece, I have a feeling of knowing the subject more deeply than I would have otherwise, even if it’s a familiar subject, like a member of my family. Painting, which requires careful observation and attention to detail above all else, prompts me to be both curious and empathetic about my subjects. It connects who I am to who or what my subjects are.

My most recent work, the Matchbook series, is indicative of my larger approach to painting. Though this is only one body of work, I carry the techniques and the connections to the subject matter across all of my work. This series in particular began with a visit to my family home in Stevens Point, Wisconsin shortly before it was put up for sale. Clearing out the garage, I found a small tin of matchbooks from the 1950s in a box of my dad’s stuff. These tiny, graphic gems advertising northern Wisconsin resorts, small town bars, and an idealized, nostalgic past were clues to my dad’s world as a young man and young husband. Names and places like Eagle Waters Resort, Deer Park Lodge and Jack’s Place provide insights to a part of his life never shared with me when he was alive, their names suggesting easy, casual establishments in sylvan settings. Bold mid-century typography and simple, graphic imagery of everything from pinup girls to sunsets on the lake make these small-scale designs come alive. This series connects me not only to my dad, but to my own childhood spent at the tail end of this era, and generally an era in which even mass-produced commercial objects had a charming, eccentric handmade quality I seek to replicate. This is a world in which my own dad was clearly an active participant, and these improvisations and reimaginings allow me to connect to that part of his life in a way that may feel familiar to anyone who has snuck into their parents’ room when no one was around and looked through their dresser.

My other work, whether portraiture, landscape or even imagined scenes outside my own day-to-day reality, all primarily draw upon my own personal experiences. Putting them into the form of paintings allows me to spend time with the subject matter over a period of time, and both alter and enliven their visual aspects through color, composition, texture and improvisation.

1/30/24 - 3/8/24: Maple Grove Arts Center, All Seasons Show, Maple Grove, MN

Ongoing: Mid Country Bank, Buffalo, MN

Ongoing: Stellis Health, Buffalo, MN

2019 Delano Area Council for Arts and Culture
“Spark Art” public art project, featured artist

2021 Delano Herald Journal
Best of Delano Area Local Artist

2021 Central MN Arts Board Artist Learning Grant

2022 Delano Herald Journal
Best of Delano Area Local Artist

2023 Delano Herald Journal
Best of Delano Area Local Artist

2023 Springboard for the Arts Growth Fund for Artists

2023 Maple Grove Arts Center Retro Show
Award of Excellence