God Is A Bullet is a meditation on American gun violence in the modern era. Sharilyn drew on photojournalistic images taken at the scenes of mass shootings to depict the bullet holes as mandalas of damage. The work was presented at Bushwick Open Studios in 2017 at various locations including M David Studio and Temporary Storage Gallery.
Oil on reclaimed panel, 30 x 40 in
Painting depicts shattered safety glass inside a classroom. In 2012, Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 small children and 6 adult caretakers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
Oil on Aluminum Composite, 16 x 20 in
Based on an image of a bullet hole caused by automatic rifle fire to a windshield. From the mass shooting committed by Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik of Redlands, Ca. 14 killed and 22 injured in 2015.
oil on linen panel, 16 x 20 in
A bullet hole in safety glass caused by gunfire at a Baton Rouge shopping plaza in 2016. Gavin Long shot six police officers, three died and three were injured. Shooting occured in the wake of unrest caused by the police shooting of Alton Sterling.
oil on reclaimed wood, 4 x 10 in
a study for larger painting ‘Sandy Hook’, based on bullet damage at a Connecticut elementary school.
watercolor on board, 20 x 30 in
I was working as a photo editor at an online newspaper on the night the Las Vegas shooting happened. It was near closing time but we stayed all night moving pictures and updating the story. For ethical reasons, we try not to show photos of dead people on the front page, but because things were developing so quickly, it was hard to tell the wounded from the dead in the chaos of the moment. Most of the photographers on scene were amateurs or people who normally shoot music events - and utterly unprepared to cover a massacre. Though I’ve worked on coverage for mass shootings many times as a newspaper photo editor, the tragedy in Las Vegas really affected me strongly. Still, I wasn’t surprised when the official remedy was ‘thoughts and prayers’.
ink on vellum, 6 x 8 in
a companion piece for ‘Thoughts and Prayers’ inspired by the Las Vegas massacre.
ink on vellum, 6 x 8 in
a companion piece for ‘Thoughts and Prayers’ inspired by the Las Vegas massacre.
watercolor on board, 8 x 10 in
9 people were injured in Houston when a gunman opened fire at random in September 2016
A gunman opened fire at an apartment complex swimming pool in San Diego on Sunday evening, killing one person and injuring seven others before being fatally shot by officers, police said.
The gunman, identified as Peter Selis, was pronounced dead at the scene. Police described him as a white male who may have lived in one of the buildings, and said all of the victims were African American or Hispanic. Police said they did not know whether race was a factor in the attack.
oil on aluminum composite, 11 x 14 in
study of bullet holes in glass at the scene of a police-involved drug raid in Mexico