January 23, 1994
"Many noticing Warren artist's method of 'self-discovery'"
by Evelyn Apgar
WARREN - Many a mother would see their daughter's closet as a mess that needs cleaning.
But Ellen Sherman-Zinn sees the stuff in her daughter's closet in one of her large colorful abstract paintings that she appropriately titled "Rachel's Closet."
The painting will go on view next Sunday in an exhibition at the Ben Shahn Gallery at William Paterson College in Wayne.
When the exhibition closes in March, the 48-by-60-inch painting will return to the Everhart Gallery in Basking Ridge, which owns the painting.
Sherman-Zinn is aIso preparing for two other shows in 1994 - the College Art Association Mid-Lantic Open Juried Show at the Ridgewood Art Institute and a solo show at the Warner-Lambert Invitational in Morris Plains.
These shows follow a busy 10 year schedule that saw Sherman-Zinn show her work at the Straley Gallery in Livingston, the Millburn Public Library, Montclair State College, A.J. Lederman Fine Arts in Hoboken, the David Gary Gallery in Millburn, the Artists League of Central New Jersey 8th annual Juried Exhibition and the New Jersey Art and Science Invitational at the Pargot Gallery in Edison.
For her growing professional recognition, Sherman-Zinn was recently named one of the state's 15 most accomplished women by New Jersey Woman magazine.
“Painting is like self-discovery. A painting is to surprise myself and see what’s in my subconscious,” she said.
But her career was not always this busy for the 48-year-old artist, who says the primary inspiration fur her large colorful abstract paintings is Willem de Kooning, the renowned American artist who was born in the Netherlands.
“I was very influenced by the way Willem de Kooning applies the paint,” she said.
When she enrolled in the fine-arts program at Syracuse University, Sherman-Zinn majored in textile design because she was uncertain whether she could make a living as a painter.
She found work in the fashion industry and eventually became director of fashion merchandising for the National Knitwear and Sportswear Association. As part of her job she would travel to Europe twice a year for a month's stay and mount a large show of the latest fashions from Milan. London and Paris upon her return.
Despite her success in fashion design, Sherman-Zinn felt that something was missing in her life,
"The more successful I was, the less painting I was doing," she said. "I decided to quit my job to paint and drive a New York taxi at night."
When her friends questioned her decision and suggested that she take a vacation to think things over, Sherman-Zinn took their advice and went to Club Med in Guadalupe.
There she met her future second husband, radiologist Stephen Zinn.
"It was one of those things when you meet someone and you know you've found your soulmate," the artist said.
She returned to her fashion job but moved to New Jersey when she married Zinn a year later.
The move enabled her to devote her full attention to her art, working in her studio at her home in Warren.
She says she's pleased with the result.
"My work has increasingly become more objectified and has more representational images in. it," she said.
"I have a lot of work," Sherman Zinn said. "It's very varied and the influences are very diverse."
