Somerville artist Jane Sherrill.

By JT Thompson

Jane Sherrill, a painter and mixed media artist, has been working in the same studio in Vernon Street Studios for over thirty years. She speaks with the gentle thoughtfulness and cheerful self-confidence of someone who has looked for and found happiness in life.

“I moved to Somerville from the Cape because I wanted to be in a city, I wanted something to bump up against. The Cape was too easy, too beautiful. I’d lived in Chicago, New York. And Somerville is open, you can get involved. You can get to know the mayor, the city councilors. You can really be a part of it, of what’s happening in the city. And there’s a big arts community.”

“I didn’t come for that, that wasn’t here 30 years ago. It used to be a tough city, there were a lot of racial tensions. And people who hadn’t grown up in the city were called Barneys. It’s changed a lot. But I don’t like all the luxury condos that are being built. You can’t afford to live here anymore, artists are moving out.”

Sherrill grew up in Westfield, New Jersey.

“It was not a very nice community at that time. We lived on the wrong side of the tracks. We’re Jewish and there was a lot of anti-Semitism.”

Bob Dylan became a hero to Sherrill when she was young.

“The first time I saw him was in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Joan Baez brought him out. He started singing, and my first reaction was, Oh my god, that’s awful,” Sherrill laughs. “Then, Oh my god, he really touched me.”

“I was a miserable kid, I was the rebel. My sister could do no wrong, I was always at loggerheads with my parents. I started buying Dylan’s albums, and I remember sitting on the front lawn of our suburban home reading the back of his album covers. I memorized all the words, I loved him – he seemed to be talking about real things, his words were real to me. I came to like his strange voice, and how he used it. I think he’s an excellent singer.”

Sherrill first began thinking of herself as an artist when she was living on the Cape in the late ‘70s.

“When I was living in New York City, I started doing automatic drawings. On the Cape, I started doing it more seriously, I started showing. I found a gallery to work with. But I’m self-taught. I did take an art class when I was an undergraduate, and the professor gave me a D,” she laughs. “So funny to think of that now, after so many years of being an artist, but it wasn’t funny at the time. Now, my studio is my real home. For over 30 years! I feel like I’m breathing in here, I’m alive. I don’t have to worry about a lot of junk, how I look, stuff like that. I feel like I’m breathing freely.”

“I’m moving now into mixed media, but I still love to paint. When I’m in my studio I feel like my whole being is being used. I’m true, I’m real, I’m whole.”

What was your experience of the Women’s March?

“I loved it. I loved it. I was scared before going, I thought something awful would happen.

“It was packed, but people were happy, everyone was so nice. There were so many people I couldn’t hear the speakers. But everyone was happy, so it was great being there. We had been so miserable after the election, and it was a great feeling of we are a people, we matter.”

“I stayed for the whole thing, and when the March moved down into the streets, there were people hanging out from building windows cheering, truckers were honking their horns, a church was playing We Shall Overcome.

“And it was great seeing so many men there. Men need to stand up for women – to make change happen. The same with racism, white people need to stand up for black people. The people in power have to say this is not right – this is what’s right.”

“The March was just lovely, such a happy experience.”

What’s your perspective on the #metoo movement?

“I was delighted,” Sherrill laughs. “All of us women have had those issues. It just goes on and on.

“When I lived in NYC, you always got catcalls on the street. I lived on the Lower East Side. There was a gang that used to hang out near St. Mark’s Church. The joke in the neighborhood was that the gang kept things safe.”

“I got friendly with one of the gang members, Jimbo, we used to sit on the stoop and talk. One of the gang, Michael, used to make pig sounds, animal sounds, when I walked by. I would grimace, it just turned my stomach.”

“Michael would get angry at my reaction, and kept getting angrier, and one day Jimbo asked me ‘What’s going on with you and Michael?'”

“Jimbo had Michael come sit with us to talk it through. Michael thought he was giving me the ultimate compliment. I explained how it made me feel, and he stopped doing it.”

“Then Jimbo disappeared, went to jail. I don’t know what he did but what a shame. He had a lot of skills with people. He could have helped people with those skills. He could have been important in this world.”

What do you think a more woman-led America would be like?

“Oh boy,” Sherrill laughs. “We’ve never had it. So who knows? But I do think women are more collaborative. We’ve become a top of the mountain, sports game, winner take all society, full of competition. Women can be like that too. But I think we cooperate with each other more. But women who’ve wanted to be in power have had to play the man’s game. There’s always a caveat, you can’t generalize.”

“But I feel, with more women in power, there would be more concern for people, for kids, for schools, for everyone. But who knows, human beings are a crazy lot. And if you’ve been wanting power, you get schooled in the ways of getting it. But even Hillary Clinton, when she was a New York senator, worked with people from the other side, and worked well with them.”

What would you like to say to women in America today?

“I have to think about that a minute,” Sherrill laughs. She pauses, then continues.

“I remember a performance piece I wrote for a woman who was getting married. This was many years ago. It was for her bachelorette party. As a gift I wrote a performance piece—Advice From The Old Crone To The Bride-To-Be. I played the old crone in me. At the end I told her to make noise, make plenty of noise, and don’t let anybody shut you up!”

“At the wedding, after the vows, the bride just started shouting. At first no one knew what was going on but those of us who were at the party understood. We all laughed.”

Sherrill smiles a big smile. “I loved that.”