The Light Switch / Oil on linen / 33” x 55” / 2022

The viewer approaches the painting only to realize the light switch painted on the left is life-sized. In some sense, the negative space of the wall invites the viewer into in the hallway outside sculptor Sherri Schnall’s home studio and to embody a family member begging her attention.

LWC: It took me a long time to recognize ways in which patriarchal norms have framed my behavior and I think I still don’t know the depths of it. Visiting with Sherri, she excused herself several times to answer the doorbell and she spoke both about her kids’ and husband’s busy schedules that define the time she can spend working. For me, two things were clear - first, she strongly favors making art over leisure and, second, she is not really in full control of her time. And so the light switch in the hallway, glowing green with various programs of lighting, came to represent for me questions of agency in art-making. To what extent do the people around artists support their work? What does it mean to work under the quiet threat it’ll be “lights out?” When we look at her, do we see a mother? Or a sculptor? I want my viewer to feel the temptation to hit that light switch - to put her in the dark - and then feel revulsion that they would have that power.