Sherree Rodriguez is a self-taught, Oregon artist. In the summer of 2017, she began painting watercolor realism as a means of self-care and grief recovery. Her painting is a restorative practice of joy, connecting her with nature and something greater than herself. Her watercolor paintings are done over the course of many hours, allowing a focus on beauty, detail, color, depth and light. More than anything, she is enamored of nature and beauty and finds particular inspiration in subject matter that reveals nature’s cycles, synergy and the resilience of its delicate balance.
Sherree’s early years were spent in the Willamette Valley, where she lived until age 15, when she moved to Florence, Oregon. She attended Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma. She and her husband Mark raised their family in Florence. For many years she worked in church ministry, culminating in seven years in an associate pastor role. In 2013 the couple moved to the Salem area, where she began her work with Oregon Department of Justice. She is Management Assistant for Crime Victim and Survivor Services Division. Painting is a very important aspect of her self-care and a means of joyful expression that helps balance the harsher realities of life. It is her purpose to spread hope and help others find a sense of meaning and their own voice in this world, in the way that works best for them.
She has participated in several local art shows since 2017, including Something Red, the Elsinore spring show, several iterations of the How We Grow Our Food Show, Westminster Festival of Fine Art, Southminster Celebration of Creativity, and Oregon Cherry Blossom Festival.
Her work has been featured at the Keizer Community Center, The Oregon State University LaSells Center, the Cottage Grove and Florence Art Walks and at The Oregon State Fair, where one of her pieces won the Best of Show in the Professional paintings division in 2019. Her art was selected as the City of Keizer Winter Holiday card in 2021 and selected for the Oregon State Cherry Blossom Festival in 2020.