My mom, Sherri King, began creating mosaic art in the late 1950’s. Back then she studied with Herri Barscht and Octavio Medillin. In 2008, the Creative Arts Center of Dallas named their mosaic studio after her. She created, exhibited and sold her work until the day before her final illness.
Ice Village
Chickens mosaic, created in 1958
Marrakesh
Sonia and Sherri King in the mosaic studio
Xanadu
Sherri King was a rare jewel… passionate, creative and adventurous. Whether having drinks with Diego Rivera in Mexico City or dancing with Trevor Howard in Tahiti during the filming of ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’, she lived life to the fullest.
Sherri was a survivor who trod lightly and without bitterness, considering the difficulties life dealt her. She had an uncanny eye for things of beauty, both hidden and in plain sight, and an impeccable color sense and aesthetic. All Sherri’s talents and experiences and sensitivities went into her mosaic art, a passion that lasted from the late 50’s to the day before her final illness.
Sherri was known for her beauty, her flirtatiousness, her effortless elegance, her unerring style, her needle-sharp wit that could undermine pomposity without the victim entirely understanding what had happened, her creative talent, her graciousness and humor, her touching and rather vulnerable need for self-assurance, but above all else her lovingness and loyalty. As her daughter, I can only hope to inherit a small portion of her style, grace and passion.
When we were growing up, my mom had a hot car and she was a great driver. There was a narrow, curvy road near our house and my brother and I would encourage her to drive really fast. My brother, Jerry, is gone now but I know he’d join me one more time, calling out, “Let her go, Mom, let her go!”
In lieu of flowers, a tax-deductible donation may be made in Sherri King’s name to the Creative Arts Center of Dallas via PayPal to dpollak@creativeartscenter.org
At the naming of the Sherri King Mosaic Studio at the Creative Arts Center of Dallas. My mom with her good friend, David Gruber, who created the sign.
After Dark