Artist Sheila Berger on "The Martha Stewart Podcast"
If you haven't already, please tune in to "The Martha Stewart Podcast." These shows are when I sit down for one-on-one conversations with fascinating people from all walks of life to learn how their individual careers began, how they have evolved, and what tips they have for listeners. These talks are filled with information, inspiration, and lots of laughter. My podcasts are available on the iHeart media app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
One of my latest recordings is with my friend, artist Sheila Berger. Sheila is a New York City based sculptor and painter well known for her public art pieces on nature. Sheila's work has been shown in several notable locations across the country and around the world. Not long ago, Sheila and I sat down in a quiet corner of my home to talk about her career, her travels, her art installations, and what inspires her curiosity, her creativity, and her compassion.
Enjoy these photos and please listen to my podcast.
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- I’ve known Sheila Berger for many years. Here we are in my home shortly after recording the podcast. It was so nice to catch up with Sheila, talk about our modeling days, share travel stories, and hear about her beautiful works of art.
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- As Sheila tells it, her artistic journey with birds began at her childhood home in Missouri. “Outside a large picture window in the kitchen was a small porch. Above the porch were two planters. My mother and father would sit in the kitchen and look out. I came to plant one spring in 2007. As I removed the first planter, I saw five blue robin eggs. I carefully put it back and told my mom that she would have baby birds soon. I then took down the other planter where there was an empty nest. I took the nest home. My mother, with great tenderness, watched the birds and would call me with daily updates on the eggs. In the meantime, I placed the humble, fragile, empty nest on an ornate marble pedestal in the center of my studio.”
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- This is Sheila’s first bird – small, but very special.
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- Sheila kept journals of her thoughts and ideas.
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- Every page is a beautiful work of its own. This tells another angle of the robin’s nest and eggs story. Sheila looked to find something special in the small and ordinary of nature.
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- Sheila went on to create larger birds out of stainless steel. Here she is hammering feathers for a 10-foot piece.
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- Here she is grinding and attaching pieces of steel to the body. Looking closely, one can see her drawings on the metal. Every piece is attached so carefully and precisely.
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- And here is Sheila welding the feathers.
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- This is ‘Avis Gloriae Et Lavdis’ at sunset, displayed in Riverside Park, New York City.
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- And here is Sheila working on the mask of her meadowlark sculpture she calls ‘Superhero.’
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- Sheila stands next to the finished meadowlark she created with a sand hill crane mask. The bird was placed at Yanney Heritage Park in Kearney, Nebraska, the location of one of the largest and oldest bird migrations in the world. Between March and April, more than a million sand hill cranes fly over the Platte River Valley from Canada to the Southern United States. It’s a sight to behold. (Photo by Rosanne Cash)
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- Bird ‘MMXXIII’ is at Governor’s Island in New York. This bird is made of stainless steel with a crown and mirrored belly, situated across the iconic Statue of Liberty ready to greet any and all visitors. (Photo by Ilir Rizaj)
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- Sheila captured this photo of ‘MMXXIII’ with her Barbet, Bertie.
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- Sheila loves how her birds attract people of all ages, genders, and lifestyles, to visit her birds and hopefully to appreciate the small and ordinary creatures of the world.
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- Sheila also began a project dedicated to hands. Sheila recounts, “I began casting my own hands in 2010, and when I held them; turning them around, I felt the totality and urgency of my life. Somehow seeing my hands outside of my body made me want to be in my body. I wanted to share this with my friends, their friends, with couples together and apart, and strangers, etc. Then the project came together – just women. I now have over 100 pairs of hands and am ready to place them in a collection.” (Photo by Gael Towey)
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- Here is Sheila excavating a pair of hands. Some of her hand models include Carol Burnett, Gloria Steinem, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Joni Mitchell, Lily Tomlin, and me. (Photo by Gael Towey)
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- Here are my hands – one in the other. Sheila calls this a goddess pose.
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- This is the hand of the late Ruth Bader Ginsberg, an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020.
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- Some of Sheila’s casts are displayed on her home mantel. (Photo by Erica Shires)
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- Here is a sculpture of what could soon be a giant public art installation called The Makers, showing how girls and young women are taught to use tools.
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- And here is a painting done by Sheila. This was inspired by a visit to my farm. Sheila says, “Martha invited my family to her home one Easter Sunday. After we left, she gave me a large carton of colorful eggs. I brought the eggs to my studio and added them to an encaustic painting in progress, ‘Sweet Spring.’ When I added color to the bellies of the robins, I kept seeing the orange yellow yolks of Martha’s chickens’ eggs and there they are – bright yellow.
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- Sheila’s creativity can be found everywhere, including her own kitchen. She says, “I needed a kitchen table. I couldn’t find what I was looking for, so I made it.
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- The photos show only a sampling of the great work Sheila has completed and presented around the world. Speaking with Sheila was informational, inspirational, and full of wonderful personal stories. I hope you take the time to listen to my podcast with artist Sheila Berger – available wherever you get your podcasts.
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