Born into a military family, Cheryl Turner’s childhood meant moving and living in many places. Her favorite was the country of Germany. With no television, Cheryl spent a lot of time visiting German castles and cathedrals and simply watching life outside her window. She saw “clothing hanging on a line and the tops of roofs” in terms of design … and even as a child, she began to draw them. “I always knew I’d be a painter,” she says, “but it was that clothing hanging on a line that began my interest in lingerie.” For a while, Cheryl thought she might become a lingerie designer, but when Cheryl turned 18, she loaded up her VW bug with all her belongings and traveled cross-country to follow her dream to work at Disney World, which had just opened up in Orlando. At night, she sketched portraits for Disney and attended Community College during the day. Although she acknowledges her art classes, she still considers herself a self-taught artist. Working at Disney she had the opportunity to experiment with a variety of materials, study color, and learn techniques that formed her as a fine artist. Over decades, she worked with Disney as a sculptor, model maker, and eventually as a set and prop designer as part of the art direction team known as Walt Disney Imagineering. From the Magic Kingdom’s Main Street, Cheryl is today an award-winning Artist who has never gotten far from her love of the human figure … or lingerie.
Cheryl Turner with her "Best of Show" Award winning "Merman"
WE: Please tell us about your art...
CT: My paintings are mostly acrylic. The subjects appear in my creative consciousness, and although I have the painting sketched out in charcoal on the canvas, it often changes as the characters develop. The paintings – and the people in the paintings – take on a life of their own. Often I find that viewers are challenged by identifying the gender of my androgynous characters. My current series “Boudoir” was inspired by my younger days when I lived in Europe. The lingerie that the local stores carried contrasted dramatically with the basic white that the Military Base stores offered. Combining nostalgic scenes with a slight modern twist, the “Boudoir” series was born.
WE: How/when did you start becoming an artist?
CT: While in my teens, I began sketching and painting figures. Intrigued by
European lingerie fashion I began sketching my own designs with the romantic notion that some day I would be a lingerie designer. As a young adult I got my start decades ago at Walt Disney World in Orlando where I worked as a sculptor and a Walt Disney ‘Imagineer.’
Monday by CT
WE: What do you draw inspiration from?
CT: My muse is my life partner of 24 years – Dawn Rosendahl – who is an artist as well.
WE: Where are your favorite places to create art?
CT: When the weather permits, I love to paint in the courtyard, otherwise I paint in my art studio that I share with my partner.
CT wall in the 2010 Exhibit "7 Gay Artists -- Out and Proud"
WE: What do you enjoy creating most?
CT: My paintings are emotionally inspired and losing myself in my painting is therapeutic in a way. Cheryl is inspired by that sassy, but dangerous time of ‘speakeasy's’ and underground bars. Swanky women and men with swagger are her favorite characters to depict in her often decadently nostalgic paintings with a modern twist.
WE: How can readers find and purchase your art?
CT: My “Boudoir” series is currently on display at the Lee James Gallery at City Arts Factory in downtown Orlando. My work can also be found on my website, CherylTurner.weebly.com
CT with a life-size work -- "Unmentionables"
WE: Is there anything else you'd like to share with us?
CT: I received the Best of Show Award at the 2010 ‘Art Explosion’ with the painting, "Merman,” which led to a Solo show in 2011 at the George Hester Gallery in Fort Lauderdale. In addition to my paintings, I have a series of sculptures in progress that deal with issues of gender and being gay.
Josh Garrick is the Florida Arts Editor for Wandering Educators