Who is Sheila Morley?

I am Sheila (formerly Farnell) Morley, a happily married mother of two boys.  After a 9-1/2 year career in a construction related business, I started my second career; making art!  Today, I do both jobs.  The art is why I am here; on the Internet.  I am currently creating Sculptural beads, marbles, and paper weights with glass. I represent myself right now. I am thinking that I would like to have a future of outside representation (Fine art galleries). I could really use some more time to create the art.  For today, I sell my work myself on the Internet at my web page, e-bay, and I have an Etsy shop. (Etsy is where everything is handmade.) , and at various shows. This blog started to discuss the process I go through when I create a body of work.

My long story~ (A little history about me):

Creating art has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember. As a child I enjoyed drawing caricature’s of my friends and family. Many of my summer vacations were spent traveling the great lakes around Michigan. Being fascinated with the idea of trying to paint the landscape, I decided to go to college for Painting.

After attending two community colleges (1991-1993, and developing a 2D portfolio to jury into the Fine arts.  I was accepted (and received a scholarship) to attend the Center of creative studies in Detroit, Michigan in 1994. When I realized I was being faced with a potential $90,000.00 bill (after the free money?), I decided I would need a more economical solution. After applying to the Fine Arts department at Michigan State University, I was accepted into the program fall of 1994.

After one semester I became aware of my desire to sculpt with clay and cast metal.  I was hooked! I would awake every day around 8:00 am and hit the studio until dark.  A twelve hour day in the studio was normal for me.

Being fascinated with the expressions that can be captured in figurative sculpture, I studied life drawing and sculpting.  Also, Raw art, almost unfinished, with finger prints and organic textures became my obsession.  In the fall of 1995 I began a thematic based on human passion to create and how obsessive it can become.

The sculptures started out to be very illustrative.

A women in a box full of gold coins, ritualistically celebrating it.

(4′ tall~Ceramic)

As if her passion was having money.

I created a Life size figure made of beads; made of her own passion! (that was accepted into the MSU Fine Arts Juried show in 1997).

(I have yet to find the slides? these are the beads I made to build the women made of beads (2″ x 1-1/2″)~Ceramic)

I wanted my work to be larger. It just was not practical. No rent was going to be paid with conceptual passionate Art for the sake of art.

I just kept it up anyhow. I created a room full of ceramic beads, from the ceiling to the floor.  When you would go inside the “bead” room, the beads would touch you wherever you were. I made some enormous beads! (15″ round). the environment was abstract and, I think anybody who likes beads or bead art would love to hang out in that environment.

(I built a totem with them years later…)

I pushed my boundaries. Messing with fabric embossing and cast rope. Moving up to metal welding and cast bronze.

(Left, 7″ tall bronze . On Right, 30″ tall bronze “within”)

(below steel cut with a torch into gestures.)

I graduated in 1997 with high honor.  Two days later I started working for a contractor I began drawing shop drawings, which led me to Engineering, which led to Project Management. Which bought me a house (1999), saved me some money, built me a studio (2004). I did make art when ever I could, but I always felt that I did not have the time to do what I wanted.

I fell in Love with Glass in Fall of 2005.  Thanks to common interests with other artists, and the Internet!  Here I am now.

I have been continuing my interests with figurative sculpture.  Taking that to a new level, while incorporating those ideas with glass beads.  The idea of creating these sculptures with beads feels right to me.  A bead is something you can look at, hold, take with you.  Making glass beads gave my art a function. Right now, I am happy to make my work on this small scale.  Make the sculpture today; look at it tomorrow! The immediate results with glass is fascinating.

Beads are sculptures too!

If you would like to learn more about me, visit my website, http://www.sheilamorley.com