For years I have been seeing the name "Henrietta Sparkman" on art pieces at the Grand Theatre Center for the Arts or in the Tracy Art League's Expressions! show. However, I had not met the artist until I contacted her for this project. Henrietta, who lives in Modesto, studied art and art history in college and became a high school art teacher, although she left public school teaching twelve years ago. She exhibits her work extensively and supports arts programming and other artists throughout the region. She is connected to the Monterey Bay Plein Air Painters, the National League of Pen Women, and the Central California Art Association and the Mistlin Gallery among other organizations. Her artist CV must run for pages! Henrietta manages to make a prodigious amount of art despite her many commitments to curating gallery shows and volunteering with arts organizations. Many people likely know her as a landscape painter, but Henrietta also works in mixed media, printmaking, and sculpture. I was able to see examples of her many forms of work at her home recently. She works to capture the joy of nature as well as process painful experiences. There are sometimes political or moral aspects to her work, however, these themes are not necessarily obvious at first look. For example, in the painting below, Henrietta was exploring the concept of migration and the movement of people.
Henrietta has articulated her "visual voice" in a quote that hangs in her work area: "Art is my visual voice! Art is an expression of what cannot be said in words, it is my visual poetry, it is the creation of my humanity, my soul and the heart of who I am." Henrietta's studio is the stuff of dreams - a porch running the entire length of the house that she had enclosed. It has a sink, raised windows in the ceiling, and many specially designed spaces for storage. Henrietta is a problem-solver. When she needs her space adjusted to accommodate her work, she makes the change or hires someone to fix it to her specifications. Henrietta has a sense of humor that comes through in her space as well. Below is "Titty Titty Bang Bang," a found art sculpture that she created with some friends and has become a catch-all for items in her studio. In a previous post, I touched briefly on Henrietta's home and how it feels "curated" - as if she uses her home to artfully display her own works and the works of others. Henrietta carries that effort to her yard as well. She has added specially-designed metal shade structures and wire fencing to her backyard so that she could better host Open Studio tours with her friends. Because of her interest in plein air painting and because she maintains a beautiful garden, I chose to photograph her there.
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April 2022
AuthorTiffanie Heben is a photographer who has been inspired by the artists in her community |