Sherry Meidell: Call Yourself an Artist

Sherry Meidell is a watercolor illustrator who often sees in life what others miss. For her, art is a way to connect with people and highlight the grandeur of life. Sherry serves as president of the Utah Watercolor Society and has received acclaim for illustrations of children’s books and landscapes. Watercolor is magic, she says. You don’t always know how water is going to react to paper. “Often,” she says, “it turns out better than expected. ” For Sherry, creating art is a spiritual experience—the inspiration coming from without. Like her granddaughter who gave $3 to her grandfather’s medical care, all the money she had, Sherry counsels to “give the creative process all you have.” Finding that inspiration sometimes means climbing to the cliff’s edge for the right perspective or noticing the pioneer mansions that line Onion Street in her hometown, or stopping to see a spray of flowers outside the front door. Sherry has illustrated several children's books. She is currently serving as president of the Utah Watercolor Society. You can find her work at sherrymeidell.com. This episode starts with a conventional interview, but then we caught Sherry on a live microphone sharing some candid words of wisdom and encouragement to an aspiring artist. Her advice was so good that we decided to leave that part of the conversation in.