ABOUT WHAT I DO & WHO I AM

I grew up in a small town in north-central New Hampshire. 

Bounced around the country from Maine, to Boston, to Indiana, to New York, to Philly, to Cincinnati...

I now live in Northern California. 

EDUCATION 

1990

BFA, Sculpture
University of Cincinnati, School of Design, Architecture, Art & Planning

1983–1987
Bronze Foundry Program
SUNY Binghamton, NY

1972–1975
Foundation Program
New England School of Art & Design, Boston, MA

1972–1976
Apprenticeship with Hugh Gerald Robert “Robin” Binning
Cambridge, MA

SELECTED SOLO & GROUP SHOWS

2025–1990
~Annual Spring / Fall Open Studios*
San Leandro, Alameda, Fairfax (CA); Fort Bidwell, CA

2019–present
~Yampapath Studio
Fort Bidwell, CA

2010–2019
~Water Street Studio
Fort Bidwell, CA

2011
~Birdology: Art Works by Brenda Sherburn LaBelle with Book Reading
Riley’s Art Center & Supplies, San Rafael, CA

2001
~Featured Artist, Cashew Festival
Crooked Tree, Belize

2015, 2014, 2013
Annual California Ceramic Artists
Sacramento, CA

2013
Wall for Peace, International Art for World Peace
India; Istanbul, Turkey

1995–1993
Outsider’s Art: PAIRS
Creative Growth Art Center, Oakland, CA

1993–1992
Frail Elder Center for Alzheimer’s
Oakland, CA

1992
Women’s Art Exhibit
Ebert Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1992
Sculpture Expo (Merit Award)
California State Fair, Sacramento, CA

1988
Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts
Wilmington, DE

1987
~Solo Exhibition
Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY

1987
Institute of Contemporary Art,
College of Philadelphia, PA

1987
The American (BAD) Dream, Lawrence / Rosemont Gallery
Rosemont, PA

1987
Window Display: Chernobyl, The Savage, Clay Studio
Philadelphia, PA

1982
Festival of Alternatives in Art,
SUNY Binghamton, NY

Awards & Fellowships

2001
Paid Internship, Belize Audubon Society
Design and construction of educational exhibit on bird migration

1996
Special Commendation Award for teaching art to Cambodian Refugees.
Alameda County Board of Supervisors, CA

1992
Merit Award for Sculpture
California State Fair, Sacramento, CA

1989
Barbara Deming Memorial Fund Grant
Brooklyn, NY

1987
Artist-in-Residence Fellowship
Franklin Mint, Philadelphia, PA

1987
Special Handling Permit
Rodin Museum, Philadelphia, PA

Workshops, Symposiums & Exchanges

2018
Marble/Stone Carving Symposium
Colorado

2018

2SCULPT, Miles Schachter Carving Workshop, Lawrence, Kansas. May, 

Early 2000s
Planet X Studio Exchange
Gerlach, NV

~~~Works of art are a vital part of culture. Like bubbles touching & forming interlocking spheres shades of new colors are illuminated.~~~

Every Garden Needs A Sculpture

I am particularly fond of pollinator gardens. They are places of extraordinary beauty—alive with movement, sound, and quiet intelligence—and they offer a natural setting in which art can exist as part of a living system rather than apart from it.

Pollinator gardens serve a vital purpose beyond this visual richness. They provide essential habitat for hummingbirds, bats, bees, moths, wasps, butterflies, and countless other small creatures. Our food supply, surrounding landscapes, and entire ecosystems depend on these pollinators. Their ongoing interaction with plants sustains the delicate balance of the natural world. Without them, we do not survive.

But survival alone is not enough. We cannot thrive on mere existence.

I believe art is a unique phenomenon—one that creates moments of connection, awareness, and meaning within daily life. Art slows us down. It asks us to notice. 

A sculpture placed within a garden introduces an element of discovery, offering definition without dominance. It becomes a quiet marker—something encountered rather than announced—eliciting a sense of the unseen while remaining rooted in the physical world.

Within a pollinator garden, sculpture and nature enter into conversation. The work does not compete with life around it; instead, it participates. The sculpture becomes a place of pause, where perception deepens and presence is felt—where nature, art, and human attention briefly align.

© Sherburn LaBelle, 2024 

*About Open Studios: Prior to the 1990s, my work was supported through exhibitions and professional advocacy. Though I valued that acknowledgment, after moving to California in 1990 my focus shifted, moving away from recognition alone and toward meaning, connection, and sustained practice. While I continue to value curated thematic group exhibitions for their ability to reveal complex relationships between works; participation—particularly for sculptors—often involves significant financial and logistical costs that I cannot simply afford. Teaching art to Southeast Asian refugees in the 1990s shaped my understanding of art as a shared language; a perspective later reinforced through teaching in Belize (2001), with Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots Congo Refugee Program and Daraja Academy in Kenya (2009), in Laos (2024), and now through ongoing work with my Native American neighbors. These experiences strengthened my commitment to open studios as a central practice, allowing the public to engage directly with finished works, works in progress, and the ideas behind my sculptures and drawings.