Meet Sherry Insley

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sherry Insley. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sherry below.

Sherry , looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
I would say I get my work ethic from my mother. She was a special educator in English to middle school students, retired after 30 years of service, and then went to work for another school system!

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
Sherry Insley is a mixed media artist working primarily in photography, video, printmaking, and artist books. Her current work, Ghost Forest, documents the emergence of this environmental phenomena along the Mid Atlantic coastal areas, and the evolving landscape due to climate change. She utilizes light sensitive materials in both historic and contemporary ways to document and preserve these investigations. Interested in the physicality of photography, other recent works include Temporality, exploring how image making can manipulate and influence the experience of time. Recent solo exhibitions include What Remains at Cotyledon Arts and Temporality at Gallery Blue Door. Sherry Insley is a 2023 MAEA Art Educator of the Year nominee. She received the 2023 Juror’s Choice award for Maryland Federation of the Arts American Landscapes Exhibit. She holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from UMBC and MICA. Currently, she is an instructor at Carver Center of the Arts, a nationally recognized audition based magnet public high school. In August of 2024 Sherry will be collaborating with the Delaware Center for Inland Bays for “Arts on the Half Shell” to benefit James Farm Ecological Preserve. In winter of 2025 She will be a visiting artist at Friends School of Baltimore and have a solo show in the Katz Gallery. As the 2024 winner of the Municipal Art Society of Baltimore City Artist Travel Prize, Sherry will be traveling to several locations to continue her work documenting the emergence of ghost forests. The majority of these locations are along the Mid-Atlantic Coast and the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. She will also travel to Nienhagen, Germany to photograph the “Gespenterwald” (meaning ghost forest in German) which is situated along the Baltic Sea. This area is facing similar environmental challenges as the Chesapeake Bay watershed, as well as the Mid Atlantic Coast. She can be found in Baltimore City most of the time, and at the salt marsh the rest of the time.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Adaptability, tenacity and being open to critical feedback.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?
Go outside! Get into nature, breath, reset. Walk away from screens and give your nervous system a chance to quiet.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Sherry Insley

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