Rising From the Ashes.From Detroit to Phoenix,Story of The Artist,Cheryl Rose
How did it start
Cheryl Rose was born and raised in Wyandotte, Michigan.
A blue collar town south of Detroit. Motown music, Detroit Tiger Baseball and Bob Seger were all early influences on Cheryl. Cheryl was also deeply rooted in her Christian faith.
Being the third oldest in a family of eight children, the responsibilities were great. Cheryl always says, “things weren’t easy at our house.” She found her escape through reading and a variety of art projects. Her parents encouraged her artistic abilities from an early age. The first art competition she entered was at the early age of five years old. Cheryl colored a picture using Crayola crayons as the medium. Her mother mailed it in and Cheryl won two tickets to the movies to see Mary Poppins and an autographed picture of Captain Kangaroo! A very big deal and her first trip to the Wyandotte Theater. Cheryl always wanted to be an artist Her father encouraged her, saying she can be whatever she wanted to be when she grows up. As a teenager she painted a beautiful mural on her bedroom wall of mushrooms, mountains and hippie flowers. Art was always a part of her life in one way or another. From mastering paint by number velvet paintings to making posters for pancake breakfasts and personalized birthday cards. The backs of her spiral school notebooks were filled completely with random doodles and sayings and secrets. Cheryl would walk among the booths at the annual Art fair in downtown Wyandotte, admiring the works of all sorts created by local artists, soaking it all in. Being both inspired and overwhelmed by it all at the same time. After high school, Cheryl attended college and took a beginning art drawing class. She soon became discouraged, believing everybody in the class could draw much better than her. After the class was over, Cheryl put down her sketch pad and pencils, then moved on with her life. Cheryl had decided being an artist was not what she was meant to be. So, as John Lennon once said, life is what happens while you're busy making plans. Cheryl moved to Arizona in 1982 and promised to never tire of the beautiful mountain views, the cactus or the palm trees. She kept busy raising a family and earning a living in advertising sales for many years. Always active in the community teaching at her church, and as a community activist for traffic safety for children.
How did it continue
At the peak of her sales career, Cheryl was diagnosed with colon cancer. Being strong in her faith Cheryl went to battle against cancer and won. This brought with it time to sit and sketch with her 2 year old granddaughter.
Cheryl would draw a house on one side of the sketch pad, and her granddaughter would draw the same on the other page. They would do this while she was going through chemotherapy and healing. Cheryl had one third of her colon removed and loves to joke that she is now a semicolon She conquered cancer and resurrected her dream to be an artist, drawing for herself just for fun. To Cheryl that's what art is all about, just having fun creating and sitting back to enjoy what was created. Then start the next one. Now, her inspiration came from the mighty Superstition Mountains she calls home, and her faith shows through in the peaceful pieces Cheryl produces using Gods own creations; sand, rock, cactus bones all picked up from her property or shells, stones and sand collected from years of traveling the United States at some of the most beautiful spots in the nation. Cheryl began making mini pieces of art using drink coasters, She liked that they could be finished quickly and all the ideas that run through her head could be created. Cheryl gifted them to friends and family who came to visit or sent them out as a surprise on birthdays or for no reason whatsoever. Cheryl took a 13 week online art class and studied under an accomplished artist named “Vaz”, With his guidance and encouragement, her sketching abilities blossomed quickly. Vaz told her; if you are waiting for someone to tell you that you are an artist, here you go; “YOU ARE AN ARTIST, Cheryl Rose!” A lifelong dream come true! You can usually find Cheryl with a bag of orange chips, a cup of tea, a doob, and her sketchbook on the porch of her ranch, planning her next project, finishing 3 or 4 she just had laying around, while enjoying working on her current masterpiece. You know, like a boss. When asked how she does what she does, Cheryl answers, I visualize what I want to create, then how I am going to make it, what tools I will need to accomplish it, and finally pull together the pieces needed from collected treasures to begin the project.

Nowadays
Cheryl found her niche in nature.
Using treasures found on her travels and re-creating scenes stored in her memory, or a sketch, or a picture. Then she made her first mountain. Using a, piece of slate flooring, a hammer and glue and flipping over a canvas to have a built in frame. It's called “Rattlesnake in the Wash” Yes, there is actual rattlesnake skin on this masterpiece. How she got the rattlesnake skin? Well that is a story for another day.