Biography
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio and now living in Fort Myers, Florida, Cheryl Rapp earned a Bachelor of Science and Art Education from the prestigious Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning (D.A.A.P.) program at the University of Cincinnati. She brings a unique perspective to her subject by elevating the ordinary to extraordinary through use of vivid color, technique, and subject creating happiness. Her work has been described as “inspiration personified” as the complexities of the world is simplified in terms of a natural world intertwined with humans, animals, flora and fauna creating a sense of calm among chaos and joy over worry. For Cheryl, flowers, leaves, and vines represent the cycles of life, growth, and movement. Her work is representative of change and progress.
Artist's Statement
It has been said that my work is “inspiration personified’.
I work in watercolor, gouache and ink, gradually layering washes until I achieve vibrant colors and an active play of light and color representational of energy and growth. A glimpse of the beauty of nature- although colorful remembering its fleeting, and fragile. Sometimes when I add ink as the final stage I feel like a vine growing and weaving within the colors.
My goal is to emulate joy and appreciation of our relationship with nature and each other. I express the ordinary as extraordinary through vivid color and joyful inter-twining of nature and human. My subject is figurative. I think of art as nature by utilizing the life forces of universe, creation, growth and interconnectedness of humans to their environment. I strive to bridge the gap between the interior self and our struggling natural world by depicting the female as an intrinsic part of her environment, but not more important than her surroundings. She gazes thoughtfully, taking in the splendor of nature, Angels, plants, and animals as messengers, whispering life’s deepest secrets while inviting the viewer to delve into the same space of joy and connectedness discovering the intrinsic truth of the healing power of nature for our troubled thoughts. I strive to offer an interior view of the importance of the relationships within our interconnectedness. Nature is fleeting and the use of watercolor adds a quickness and transparency to my work reflective of nature's and human's ever changing cycles.