Artist Showcase Contest Winners

Meet Joseph

My name is Joseph C. Randall…

I am a self-taught artist who works in mixed-media of colored pencils, pastel chalk and acrylic paints.

Mission: My mission is to interpret and paint the lifestyles of Black and Brown people of the African Diaspora, from the Caribbean and throughout the Americas.

My art is colorful, emotive, expressive and captures the intimacy of the human spirit. In my work, I try to revisit the insights, emotions and ideas of lived experiences, past and present.

My art challenges our consciousness of who we are, where we come from, where we are now, where we’re going and why.

Process: My senses of observation and spiritual guidance compel me to create the images I paint. Watching people of all walks display themselves, either, alone or within a crowd, renders their personae as ever present to me, whether they are known or unknown, famous or obscure.

My paintings, as stories, interweave the symbolic meanings of the subjects’ eyes, faces, hands, bodies, the ways they clothe themselves and the representational spaces in which I find them or imagine them to live.

Contemplation of these symbolic meanings enables me to capture their spiritual, emotional and experiential aspects which inform the story being told. In this way, each character I paint tells a story, much like an actor in a play, providing content, and evoking onlooker reflection and engagement.

Meet Sharon

Sharon L. Bjyrd is best known for her vibrant portraits celebrating the beauty and diversity of the black experience. “I seek to honor the individuality of people of color and to depict the different ways we go about expressing our blackness.”

Sharon was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, moving to Madison in the early 90’s. She attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison, studying Social Work and Afro American studies and went on to work in the domestic violence field and serving women in poverty at organizations like the YWCA of Madison and the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Self-taught, with a few classes along the way, Sharon entered the art world as a second passion after a life slowdown due to Lupus and sickle cell disease created the space to re-discover her love of art in the form of painting. Her medium of choice is acrylic paint, though she’s known to dabble in mixed media. 

Sharon’s work has been featured: in the book “Let’s Talk About It, The Art, The Artists and The Racial Justice Movement on Madison’s State Street” 2021; as a mural at Madison Museum of Contemporary Art during the George Floyd riots 2020; “Bohemian Black” solo exhibit, Roberta Gallery, UW-Whitewater 2020; as an emerging artist at MMOCA ‘s Art Fair on the Square 2019; “Flowers in the Garden Exhibit” The South Side Community Art Center 2019, Chicago; Hatch Art House, Madison, WI and the Silver Room Block Party 100 Canvas Event in Chicago. She is currently one of four artists in the BridgeWork art accelerator program at Art Lit Lab in Madison.

Meet Joseph

My name is Joseph C. Randall…

I am a self-taught artist who works in mixed-media of colored pencils, pastel chalk and acrylic paints.

Mission: My mission is to interpret and paint the lifestyles of Black and Brown people of the African Diaspora, from the Caribbean and throughout the Americas.

My art is colorful, emotive, expressive and captures the intimacy of the human spirit. In my work, I try to revisit the insights, emotions and ideas of lived experiences, past and present.

My art challenges our consciousness of who we are, where we come from, where we are now, where we’re going and why.

Process: My senses of observation and spiritual guidance compel me to create the images I paint. Watching people of all walks display themselves, either, alone or within a crowd, renders their personae as ever present to me, whether they are known or unknown, famous or obscure.

My paintings, as stories, interweave the symbolic meanings of the subjects’ eyes, faces, hands, bodies, the ways they clothe themselves and the representational spaces in which I find them or imagine them to live.

Contemplation of these symbolic meanings enables me to capture their spiritual, emotional and experiential aspects which inform the story being told. In this way, each character I paint tells a story, much like an actor in a play, providing content, and evoking onlooker reflection and engagement.