By Tim Goodwin - Dec 17, 2013 | 1 comment

Man, those are weird looking Altoids. Oh, those are actually some rings Sharp made.

Sharp puts the finishing touches on a piece she will title, Tim Made Me Paint For a Minute So He Could Take a Picture.

If we’d spent more time with her, Katheryne Sharp would likely have composed an Insider theme song.

Her business card lists just three of her many skills. Painting, jewelry making and musical fusion are what Katheryne Sharp is best known for.

She is lesser known for her leather tanning, beading and soap making, and fewer still may know she spent some time as a falconer.

If you are not familiar with Sharp’s work, you might want to check it out. A collection of her oil paintings is hanging on the walls of Dos Amigos Burritos on North Main Street through the end of the month.

“It just needs to be in the right place where people will see it,” said Sharp.

The show was originally scheduled for September, but had to be pushed back due to a bad batch of gesso, a primer that goes on top of the canvas and underneath the paint to act as a bonding agent. It essentially ruined all of the paintings.

But instead of demanding that the company personally repaint all of her original masterpieces, Sharp returned to the kitchen of her daughter’s apartment, which also doubles as her studio, to recreate her work.

Over the months of September and October, Sharp spent day after day, hour after hour standing at her easel with a paint knife in hand and pallet at her side. Well, it may not have been that dramatic, but you know what we mean. It was a lot of work.

“The last part of the painting is the hardest part to do because each new stroke has to work with the other ones,” said Sharp.

While a disaster like the great gesso incident of 2013 could have doomed some artists, Sharp is not one of them. Sharp paints everything from memory and will just see things pass through her mind. It can be hard to choose which one to paint.

“I think in pictures,” said Sharp. “There’s nothing better than looking at a white canvas and having the images flash by.”

But with her wide array of talents, she does not stay on one project for long. Sharp will spend a few weeks painting, take a few days off and then move on to some jewelry work. She gave up on her falconry career after a knee operation and no longer tans leather, but she is constantly working on her music.

“After a couple weeks of painting, I need to take some time away. It’s very mind intensive,” said Sharp.

With a guitar in hand and a binder full of original songs, Sharp is no longer terrified of performing. After overcoming her stage fright (a crucial step in a musician’s career), Sharp has enjoyed playing music in front of and with others. While Sharp has lost count of her song total, she estimates it is well over 100, and she recently wrote one in Spanish. There’s even a chance that she is making fun of all us non-Spanish speaking folk, but the only way to truly know is to learn the language.

“It’s my philosophy that you can be born with an aptitude toward art,” said Sharp. “It’s a way to have a voice in the world.”

Sharp’s journey to Concord is one that includes a number of stops. She grew up in Oregon, went to college at Oregon State and spent some time living in Washington (the state, not the district.)

Her travels took her to Utah, where she really got involved in the painting community and began showing her work. It is also where she really learned to play music. A short time in Mexico was next on the itinerary, where her art work sold its best. But a heart condition brought her back stateside, and she’s been in Concord for the last three-plus years.

When it comes to her art, Sharp has developed a style over time. She rarely uses brushes, all but abandoning the practice years ago, and always applies a generous amount of paint, working down and across the canvas from the top left. Sharp typically paints in four-hour sessions and, depending on the size and depth of the piece, takes 8 to 16 hours to complete a piece.

“Then it has to sit a while before I go back and touch it up,” said Sharp. “It can be wet for up to two weeks.”

Unfortunately, in a down economy, Sharp’s paintings have not been selling enough to support her. And that is where the jewelry has helped, as she makes pieces out of wax and cast in silver.

“I wanted something that sold better than paintings,” said Sharp. “With the economy struggling, art on the wall is one of the last things people think of.”

But what it really comes down to is that Sharp is at her best when perfecting one of her many skills.

“I feel better when I paint,” said Sharp. “I can even remember in preschool painting and thinking, this is really cool.”

It’s why she’s constantly trying new things. It’s why if she had to put all of her skills and hobbies on a business card, it would likely be the size of one of her paintings. Really, how many people do you know that can say they are a former falconer?