Sheryl Anaya
Sheryl Anaya is a Puerto Rican artist and educator based in Fort Worth, Texas. She is a current graduate student at Texas Christian University pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts in Studio Art with an emphasis in Sculpture and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Texas Woman’s University in 2013. Sheryl’s work examines identity and empathy through the universality of the human experience, intimate relationships, and nostalgia, whether humorous or gut-wrenching. Her work has been shown regionally, nationally, and internationally.
Agridulce
My mother and I left Puerto Rico when I was one and a half years old. My parents grew up there—my mother near San Juan where I was born and my dad in Arroyo out in the country—but she decided she wanted to raise me on the mainland and my father never dreamed of leaving the island. As a child, my summers were spent in Puerto Rico with my father and extended family, ending with repeated phone calls to my mother begging her to let me stay.
My memories of these times are fond ones. To me, Puerto Rico is home—the brightly colored flowers of the Flamboyán tree, the sound of the coquí, salty humid air, sandy feet, summer rains, long drives in the car to get from one part of the island to the other. I’m often reminded of the tunnel we drove through to get to my grandparents’ house in Arroyo, the tile in their bathroom, chickens, dogs, and cats running free, entire afternoons spent in a hammock under their mango tree.
Over time, a growing disconnect, both between my relationship with my family still living in Puerto Rico and to the island itself, forced me to draw upon memories and photographs to rebuild that part of me. Through the exploration of my memories, Agridulce aims to examine that disconnect and detachment from place and home. The investigation of memories and familial relationships allows me to consider the audience’s engagement through a series of collaged images from personal archives, humor, and the emotions and memories that are evoked through that interaction.
Installation of Agridulce at the Artes de la Rosa Gallery in Fort Worth, TX