SHARON ARNOLD
Over the course of my life, I've bridged multiple communities, industries, and interests; but my professional life was spent most recently as curator, writer, and educator in the arts; and before that, as a chef. Behind the scenes, I've also held a personal but rigorous lifelong practice of tracing and learning my ancestral lineages and cultures to better understand where I come from, and where next to go. What each of these paths share is the interweaving and expression of various knowledge systems which ultimately build and inform our known world, through the lens of social philosophy and shared in community, conversations, and connectivity.
Dimensions Variable began in 2008 as a blog about art, artists, and art ecosystems. Now, this space is the confluence where all my streams of interest meet from arts, philosophy, and cultural criticism to animism, folklore, and ancestral practices. I'm excited to take these years of study and practice to publicly engage a more holistic conversation about how these things are related, and their relationship to the way we move forward in action, together.
Dimensions Variable began in 2008 as a blog about art, artists, and art ecosystems. Now, this space is the confluence where all my streams of interest meet from arts, philosophy, and cultural criticism to animism, folklore, and ancestral practices. I'm excited to take these years of study and practice to publicly engage a more holistic conversation about how these things are related, and their relationship to the way we move forward in action, together.
Here's the formal business:
Sharon (she/they) is a queer nonbinary essayist and sometimes educator who weaves social philosophy and cultural theory into a personal practice of folk traditions. They approach this work through the examination of art , histories, folklore, community ecosystems, and solidarity movements to support new paths forward in dismantling systems of oppression. Other areas of interest include the syncretism of ancestral traditions, primarily rooted in the study of Irish, Scottish, and American diasporic traditions with a focus on ways to collectively reconnect to ancestors, land, and spirit.
Sharon has a BFA from Cornish College of the Arts with a focus on critical theory and cultural criticism. In 2010 they launched an online project turned physical exhibition space, Bridge Productions, which until its closure in 2020 focused on collaborative process-based work, talks, and projects by artists, curators, writers, activists, and performers through various modes of storytelling in online exhibitions, digital residencies, and social media; as well as periodic curatorial projects, in-print publications, and public programming. Since 2018, she has co-taught various classes at Madrona House Apothecary, including a monthly Plant Medicine Lab, a twice-annual 4-week Ancestral Reconnection & Restorative Practices, and the year-long Earth Medicine Practitioner Training Program with Madrona House founder Vanessa Ainslie. Sharon taught from 2017-2020 as an adjunct instructor in the art department at Cornish College of the Arts, with an emphasis on the ethics and practicum of curatorial and exhibition-making; as well as integration of critical, cultural, and political theory and research in studio practices. They are currently working on various projects which tether multiple intersections of art, food, culture, and folklore which are regularly published on Dimensions Variable.
My complete art world bio and CV can be found here.
Sharon (she/they) is a queer nonbinary essayist and sometimes educator who weaves social philosophy and cultural theory into a personal practice of folk traditions. They approach this work through the examination of art , histories, folklore, community ecosystems, and solidarity movements to support new paths forward in dismantling systems of oppression. Other areas of interest include the syncretism of ancestral traditions, primarily rooted in the study of Irish, Scottish, and American diasporic traditions with a focus on ways to collectively reconnect to ancestors, land, and spirit.
Sharon has a BFA from Cornish College of the Arts with a focus on critical theory and cultural criticism. In 2010 they launched an online project turned physical exhibition space, Bridge Productions, which until its closure in 2020 focused on collaborative process-based work, talks, and projects by artists, curators, writers, activists, and performers through various modes of storytelling in online exhibitions, digital residencies, and social media; as well as periodic curatorial projects, in-print publications, and public programming. Since 2018, she has co-taught various classes at Madrona House Apothecary, including a monthly Plant Medicine Lab, a twice-annual 4-week Ancestral Reconnection & Restorative Practices, and the year-long Earth Medicine Practitioner Training Program with Madrona House founder Vanessa Ainslie. Sharon taught from 2017-2020 as an adjunct instructor in the art department at Cornish College of the Arts, with an emphasis on the ethics and practicum of curatorial and exhibition-making; as well as integration of critical, cultural, and political theory and research in studio practices. They are currently working on various projects which tether multiple intersections of art, food, culture, and folklore which are regularly published on Dimensions Variable.
My complete art world bio and CV can be found here.