She doesn’t know the rules because she is an “untrained” artist, and that’s OK by her.
That’s because Cheryl Ryan Harshman instead went to college to learn everything about managing and operating a library, and after four decades at West Liberty University’s Elbin Library, she retired and accepted a new position as director of the Sandscrest Conference and Retreat Center.
So where does her alleged amateur artwork come into play?
“I’m what they call an untrained artist because I didn’t go to art school. I went to library school and had a career in the library,” explained Ryan Harshman, whose work has been displayed in a plethora of galleries through the tri-state region. “So, part of what I do with my art is not knowing how to do it, if that makes any sense. I have a friend who is a fabulous painter, and she went to one of the best art schools, but she told me that learning all of the rules has crippled her in many ways. Because I don’t know the rules, she considers me to be free.
“So, I’m free, and I think it shows in some of the pieces that are hanging in the McLure lobby,” she continued. “No one else does anything like what I produce because it’s not something I learned to do. It’s something that just comes from me and not from sitting in a class I had to attend.”
Her husband, Marc Harshman, has served as the state of West Virginia’s Poet Laurette since 2012, and he has published 14 children’s books, as well. Marc keeps to a strict writing schedule each day while Cheryl creates when ideas click in her mind.
“Marc has his breakfast and off he goes to work,” the wife of 45 years explained. “Me? I guess I don’t have that luxury because of everything else I want to do.”
Along with directing Sandscrest through a troublesome pandemic and creating her paintings, Cheryl also has written a few children’s books and works with printmaking and textile design.
But when does a new image come to mind?
“I’ve had that conservation with an art mentor, and I have asked others if they have had trouble getting started, and if they plan their pieces out before starting,” Ryan Harshman said. “It turns out most artists’ ideas come to them the same way they come to me. There’s no specific planning to it. It’s created when the idea strikes you.
“If you have a really good idea, it’s always easier to fill it all in, but if you don’t know where the pieces are headed, sometimes good stuff still comes from it,” she said. “But there are those times when I flounder until I get there, but that is a necessary part of the process at times.”
A Most Public Gallery
When a visitor enters the lobby of the McLure House, downtown Wheeling’s historic hotel that dates back to the mid-1800s and has welcomed multiple U.S. presidents and first ladies, the individual immediately encounters Ryan Harshman’s artwork. There are more than a dozen pieces ranging in size and style, and each of them are for sale.
“To have these pieces on display in the lobby of the McLure House is such a validation for me,” Ryan Harshman said. “That’s because I make this art in a dark basement. Marc has the upstairs with the windows and the lights, but that’s OK because what I do is s solitary experience for me. I make my art the way my soul wants it to be.
“The pieces that are now in the lobby of the hotel were sitting in my basement studio in a holder similar to what they used to have in those record stores,” she said with a smile. “But when I look at them, I can’t help but ask myself, ‘Wow, did I make that?’ It really has been a wonderful surprise and experience.”
But the makeshift hotel gallery was not Ryan Harshman’s idea.
That credit belongs to Susan Hogan, a former executive director of the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra who has long been an ambassador for the arts in the Wheeling area.
“Susan Hogan just changed my life one day,” Ryan Harshman said. “She called and said, ‘I’m coming over so I can look at your art,’ so I took to my basement studio< and that’s when she started picking some of them out. I just looked at her and ask, ‘What are you doing Susan,’ and that’s when she explained she was working here at the McLure to improve the art on these brick walls. She said my work was perfect for the lobby.
“We loaded up 13 pieces and then placed them appropriately in the lobby, and they have made a difference, I believe,” she added. “I believe my art was crying for a larger space, and they are here now on loan and are for sale. Personally, I hope none of them ever have to go back to my basement.”
