Narrative Bio

Who am I? Brenda Sherburn LaBelle is a sculptor whose practice spans more than five decades. She left her home in New Hampshire at sixteen to pursue a life as an artist and apprenticed with British sculptor Hugh Gerald Binning in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At his urging, she earned her GED and studied at the New England School of Art and Design in Boston (1972– 1975).

In the 1980s, Sherburn LaBelle continued her training at SUNY Binghamton, completing the Bronze Foundry Program (1983– 1987). Her work was widely exhibited during this period, including a solo exhibition at the Arnot Art Museum in Elmira, New York (1987). That same year, she received an Artist-in-Residence Fellowship sponsored by the Franklin Mint, and a special handling permit from the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia allowing her to work directly from Rodin’s maquettes. She was also awarded a Barbara Deming Memorial Fund Grant (1989).

She earned her BFA from the University of Cincinnati (1990). After which continued an active studio practice in the San Francisco Bay Area while raising three children. During the 1990s, she received a Merit Award for Sculpture from the California State Fair (1992), a Special Commendation Award from the Alameda County Board of Supervisors for teaching art to refugees, and participated in The Women’s Art Exhibit at Ebert Gallery, San Francisco (1992).

Since the late 1990s, Sherburn LaBelle has maintained a studio practice in Northern California, working from her studio in Fairfax and at Yampa Path Studio in Fort Bidwell. Her practice has shifted from traditional exhibition models toward open studios, shaped by years of teaching and cross-cultural work in the U.S. and abroad. She values open studios as a direct and inclusive way for the public to engage with finished work, works in progress, and the ideas behind them. She lives and works in California, exploring form in stone, clay, plaster and makes assemblages.