Featured image: Three landscapes by Sherita J. Herring
Image courtesy of the artist
Art has the ability to heal, particularly during times of crisis.
In preparation for the COVID-19 PAGES virtual exhibition that we organized in collaboration with the Anderson Brickler Gallery, and Thinking CAP Collaborative Art Projects in 2021, we provided an online opportunity to talk about healing through the creative process. We hosted “Creation as Medicine during Challenging Times” on November 11, 2020.
We followed this with a four-day online event in July 2021. During COVID-19 PAGES: Art & Conversation, we spent an entire day discussing the topic of “Creation as medicine – Art in all forms as self-care.”
Recently, Sherita J. Herring – nonprofit consultant and founder of Philanthropy Alliance Foundation – shared her “Creation as Medicine” story with us.
Sherita J. Herring
Herring is nothing if not a consummate professional. She orchestrated WIF’s seamless founding in 2015 and has worked with us consistently over the past two years – first as a consultant and then as a collaborative partner in the Youth Veterinarian Initiative and the Breakthrough to Success Online Fellowship.
Over the past several months, a number of personal and professional challenges have eroded Herring’s wellbeing. Recurrent Internet access issues in her rural Arkansas community adversely affected her remote consulting business (she moved to Arkansas from Los Angeles in 2018).
In addition, pandemic-related client disparities, long distance care giving, and singlehandedly maintaining her ~30-acre property essentially drained the energy she needed to devote to consulting, preparing a camp ground on the property, and caring for her “barnyard crew” of chickens, ducks, guinea fowl, dogs, and cats.
Barnyard crew
Then came a recent double-whammy – an acute health care crisis for her out-of-state relative followed her personal, prolonged case of Covid.
The strain of everything combined led Herring to step back from all her activities and re-evaluate her life. In addition to interacting with her animals, creating art helped her to heal. She has painted four landscapes since she contracted the virus, and she has sold all of them. She last painted the historic old barn on her property (built by her great grandfather nearly 100 years ago).
Painting of historic barn
Herring shared this story to let people know that there is a always positive side to a negative situation, even in catching Covid-19. The downtime that the virus forced upon her allowed her be still and unleash her creativity again:
“I stopped letting life and work get in the way and I started painting. And I’m telling you, I first did three paintings over three days…
“I became interested in painting since I’ve been in Arkansas. I’ve always been an artist, but I’ve mainly dabbled in charcoal or pencil. I painted in high school, and I haven’t picked up a brush since…
“For me, this experience proves that art helps with your mental stability!”
Sherita J. Herring – from Beverly Hills to Barnyard
After living nearly 30 years in Los Angeles and maintaining an office in Beverly Hills, Herring is now writing a memoir about her transition from California to country entitled From Beverly Hills to Barnyard.
To contact her, whether about her consulting or her painting, click HERE.
