Celebrating Black History Month + Creative Reuse

To honor and celebrate Black History Month, we are proud to recognize black artist and one of SCRAP Creative Reuse’s Board Members, Sharon Robinson. Sharon is a mixed media artist specializing in abstract collage and assemblage.

Raised in New Jersey, she currently resides in Washington DC, after residency in Boston, Los Angeles and Portland, OR. She earned a Master’s degree in city planning from MIT, and worked in the transit and urban design field for over 20 years. Since 1999 she has been a full-time artist, muralist, teacher, and arts program contractor. As an artist she exhibits in Washington DC, as well as other east and west coast cities. Sharon teaches mixed media and collage classes at The Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, VA., Smithsonian Associates and Montpelier Art Center in Maryland. She previously served as Director of SCRAP DC, and now serves on SCRAP’s Board of Directors. She can often be found volunteering in the SCRAP B-More's Creative Reuse Center.

“I am most drawn to themes addressing cultural integration, how we define ourselves in relation to others, and biases that cause misunderstanding. I often use cultural motifs, symbols, text and related representations of ethnic, religious and racial identity. None of us can claim to be pure anything – we are only the latest version of millennia of mixing, matching, migrating and mingling,” Sharon’s Artist Statement says. Sharon creates works with many layers, and often metallic pieces that reflect light. Many of her materials she sources from SCRAP Creative Reuse.

Check out this interview with Sharon and see some of her work below.