Sharon Skolnick-Bagnoli

Artist’s Statement

This is auto-archeology, an exploration into the layers that make up the self I am today—layers that connect with you as well, as we meet here in my work. Moving through time and speaking through many media, this exhibit uncovers past states.

Someone walked in on its first day and asked me if this is a group show. I answered, "Yes, and I'm the group!" What I would like for you to take away from here in addition to your personal reactions and insights is the idea that each of us carries whole solar systems of perceptions and capabilities. We are each a group show!

I am the guardian of my past selves, as you are of yours. I feel for the me that was, and I respect the creative fruit from those times. Have compassion for your inner self, even during difficult episodes. You are much more than you realize. It is an honor to share with you some hard-won insights from my journey, things I may not be able to put into words.

Biography

Sharon Skolnick-Bagnoli was born in 1944 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. She was raised in Fairfax County, Virginia, and Baltimore, Maryland, before entering New York's Pratt Institute at the age of 16.

After graduating from Pratt in industrial design, she worked in that field in New York City while moonlighting as a producer/host of radio programs on Pacifica's WBAI-fm.

The '60s swept her west, and she settled in San Francisco from 1967 to 1969, working in design and producing a radio series at KPFA-fm. After returning to the east coast for a year, she emigrated to Oahu for a University of Hawaii master's program, first in painting and then in educational technology. She moved back to the mainland in 1973, living for many years on a houseboat in San Francisco’s Mission Creek Harbor while working in design and producing radio shows on KPOO and KALW and cable TV shows in Pacifica and San Francisco.

Sharon moved to Marin County in 1980 to write a book about Mount Tamalpais, and has stayed in Marin to this day. She is the author of Dreams of Tamalpais (nonfiction, 1989, Last Gasp) and Shiny Objects (illustrated poetry, 2009, Beatitude Press, Berkeley).

For seven years, she participated in monthly meetings of the Media Access Advisory Committee (MAAC), which dreamed of creating a not-for-profit media center for Marin County to replace the Comcast venue. The expansive, vibrant Community Media Center of Marin is the result of that dream. Along the way, she married MAAC's Chairperson, Bruce R. Bagnoli.

Besides continuing with art and writing, Sharon now works with Bruce as Visigraf communications & design. They offer a range of services including graphic design for print and screen, documentary videography, personal narrative history, literary editing, photography, and illustration. Bruce and Sharon co-produce a monthly cable TV magazine, Marinations, aired on the third Thursday of each month at 7:30 pm on Comcast Channel 26, AT&T Uverse Channel 99, and online via cmcm.tv. Their home in San Rafael is a rambling white house hidden behind timber bamboo and shared with three cats, two tortoises, and ten+ tropical fish.

You can reach Sharon at www.visigraf.com, by email at srsb@visigraf.com, or
by phone at 415.455.8221.