Shirley Henderson

Shirley Henderson is an excellent courtroom illustrator, but I did not care for the modern digressions now displayed.I don't know if she would bend her artistic conscience for $50,000, but I would really like to have some absurd paintings of the legal scene.

Shirley Henderson
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My interview with artist Shirley Henderson took place in two opposing locations: Michigan Avenue on South Beach where she was the very first tenant of the Florida Art Center and at Decorators Showcase, 35 Northeast 40th Street (was Picadilly Hearth) in the heart of the Miami Design District, where her studio/gallery will soon take up residence.
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Shirley Henderson's journey begins when she enters her studio and confronts her present, past and future among the large scale canvasses there.She proceeds to think about the nature of infinity and ambiguity; questions the nature of reality and illusion; considers the human condition and becomes playful, drawing pictures of 'The Art Monkey; Winged Victory steps out and goes to Publix and The Easter Chicken.

They help her to work through a myriad of emotions: fear, longing, anger, frustration, joy, pride, obsession, and the absurdity of being an artist.Her canvasses erupt with these emotions, as well as with her dynamic enthusiasm and love for life.

On days when the images don't cohere, her childlike sense of humor does.She occasionally wonders why she doesn't get a conventional job.It's evident, however, that she just doesn't fit the job qualifications, and blames the Art Monkey who wouldn't let her stop painting anyway.On those days she wonders how to escape from a society whose values are often antithetical to hers.Finally she is ready to confront the canvas.She listens to music when she paints, preferably Mozart ... she looks out the windows, wishes she were in Key West ... then her mind stops and she thinks no more, just paints.She no longer works in a verbal, linear fashion, for art is not a linear activity.Thoughts become ideas and ideas become shapes, colors, textures, and light.When she becomes a synthesis of these and they appear at the end of her brush she feels she has managed to escape herself and is transformed onto the canvas facing her.
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Shirley Henderson's work hangs in several museums and well over a dozen major corporate collections and selective private collections, nationally and internationally.Considering all this, it's pretty remarkable that this is only part of what this gifted artist has to offer on her palette.Let us not forget the commissioned portraits which capture the inner soul of her subjects.

This brings us to her success in juggling and balancing the scales between her serious and painstakingly slow fine art work done in the studio and, in stark contrast, the tense, frenzied pastel sketches she does in the halls of justice.In an interview with the National Law Journal, she described courtroom illustration as a schizophrenic situation.It's like drawing the cast of Ben Hur in five minutes or less.Shirley Henderson has done the visual documentation of Florida's most infamous Federal trials for the past 12 years.She is the courtroom illustrator whose work is televised by WTVJ Channel 4, NBC Network News, CBS and CNN.According to Florida law, no cameras or videos are allowed in the courtroom, so a modern day Daumier was needed.Although Shirley Henderson is bound by the decorum pervading the courtroom, her sensitivity and talent enable her to overcome its static limitations.She claims, "the courtroom has an intensity of human emotions and inherent drama that is unparalleled in my experience.First an artist, she must think also as a reporter, newscaster, and camera person."Her drawings must work for each of them, as well as for the TV audience.Therefore, these lightning fast drawings, though completed and broadcast on the same day, must be perfectly accurate windows into the courtroom.Through her energetic strokes and masterful use of color, Shirley Henderson breathes life into the participants of each trial.Each drawing is unique, though the court can be repetitious.She does it by capturing the essence of hope, fear, and torment.
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During this interview with Shirley Henderson, she received an invitation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters to submit her work for exhibition, possible purchase and once again placement in a permanent museum collection.Artist Shirley Henderson is ecstatic and highly honored.

She paints to find that fourth dimension; to find it within herself and to share it with others.
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Shirley Henderson's
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