Cheryl Sorg and Her Inspiring Portals of Hope

Cheryl Sorg and Her Inspiring Portals of Hope

Meet Cheryl Sorg, the artist behind the beautifully designed Portals of Hope street art, now depicted on new tees as part of a Kindhumans Collabs for Kindness project.

Tell us about yourself, Cheryl.

I was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1967, but having spent about 22 years of my life on and off in the northeast, I’m something of a Bostonian at heart. I moved to Encinitas from Boston in 2003 and since then have met Xavier, my husband, and we have made two beautiful babies together—Hugo, who is fourteen, and Esmé, who is twelve.

Who knows how or why I began creating art—I can’t remember a time when I didn’t. It’s been a long and wildly meandering path to what I do in the studio now, though. As a kid I spent countless hours drawing outfits and shoes and was certain—up until about age 19 or so—I was going to be a fashion designer. I floundered for years after that trying to figure out into what form I should channel my creative urges, finally falling in love with photography. I got my BFA in Photography at MassArt in Boston, but even while making photos I veered off into sculpture and installation, creating things with book pages for the purpose of shooting pictures of them.

The book page/text pieces grew in size and scope and became the sole focus of my work for many years. I was creating huge pieces in which I would cut apart two copies (in order to get the text from both sides of each page) of an entire book—Moby Dick, The Odyssey, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, etc.—line by line in the process. To make these pieces, I would turn each line of text into a strip of ‘tape’ of sorts by adhering a sticky backing to each, which, when I tired of the monochromatic nature of the text work, led naturally into actual tape, and all the color options it offered.

Photography still figures its way into my work in a number of ways—I photograph clouds obsessively and use those photos as backdrops for many of my tape pieces. I photograph tree rings to use as templates for tape drawings, and I create small, experimental collages that are temporary and made solely for the purpose of photographing.

I continue making art – and will continue to do so always, because I just can’t go without it. My sanity depends on it. I have more ideas swirling around in my head (good ones, lots of bad ones) than I could possibly ever bring to fruition, but I need to keep trying (and trying and trying).

Many of your art pieces, including the Portals of Hope Tee, feature portals. They are often understood as gateways or an in-between space that takes one to another location. Why has the symbol of a portal emerged from your practice? Is there an element of escape involved?

Oh, there is absolutely an element of escape involved! And on multiple levels. I have Bipolar II, which has me vacillating between bouts of depression and hypomania, in which I’m irritable and agitated, and I have issues with anxiety that in some aspects of my life are thoroughly debilitating. My mind can go to dark places really, really easily and in many ways it’s my default. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wished I could replace my brain with one less prone to beating myself up and getting in my way. My art practice, in a general sense, is an escape from that, and many of the things within my work—skies, rainbow, portals—have an element of whimsy and escapism that definitely stems from a need to counter the darkness, tension and negativity.

What mediums do you work with? How would you describe your subject matter?

Right now I primarily work with tape and dichroic film—lots of color and shine. I also photograph clouds and sky somewhat obsessively and those photographs find their way into my work in a number of ways. My subject matter on the surface focuses largely on forms from nature—those clouds I mentioned of course, tree rings, light, rainbows, all abstracted to varying degrees. Underneath however, are thoughts of despair and hope, connection and my place in the world (and all our places in the world).

When did you start doing Tape Art and why?

For years I was making lines of text from book pages into a type of tape by applying an adhesive backing and cutting and doing large drawings and installations with the strips. I made my first piece with actual tape about a year and a half ago, and I am completely obsessed with it.

I got to a point in my work where I felt the need for COLOR, instead of the black-and-white of the book/text work I was working with. I needed it as an antidote to all the ills of the world, an ever-growing awareness of how awful people can be—especially those in power. Working with tape has been the perfect way to incorporate color (lots of color) into what I do. There are so many types of tape and so many color choices, as well as different shine and color-change qualities, and I love experimenting with various combinations. Using tape as my medium has injected an element of play and fun into my work that was much needed. Additionally, tape’s durability and ability to weather the outdoors allowed me to begin on my street art project, something I’d wanted to do for a long time.

The ‘Portals of Hope’ street art project is something I SO enjoy, and I have had the good fortune of putting pieces up (over 450!) in cities around the world: Melbourne, Sydney, Tokyo, Oslo, Copenhagen, New York, my town of Encinitas and more!

Who or what inspires you?

SO many things and people inspire me. I am a voracious reader and I get a lot of inspiration from stories: fiction, memoir, essays and all types of narratives. I love Instagram for visual inspiration and the happiness that comes from seeing people pursuing their creative passions (I follow countless writers and artists of all types). Some people and things that I am obsessing over right now: Philippe Petit, 3M dichroic film, rainbows and clouds, trees and tree rings, Bryan Stevenson, Kamala Harris, the band FUN, the podcast Radiolab, a long, long list of writers and visual artists, and finally Lin-Manuel Miranda and ALL things Hamilton and all the brilliant folks involved in making and performing that show. Listening to the music and seeing the show has given me so much joy and inspiration, I cannot even begin to express how much.

What is your artwork’s personal message and how does that connect to a communal and universal message?

I keep becoming more and more intensely aware of just how unkind the world can be: racism, misogyny, sex trafficking, poverty, corruption in power, mass incarceration, etc. And somehow, working with the vibrant color injects a bit of cheer (hope?) into all of it for me. It certainly doesn’t improve it, or necessarily generate any change at all, but it gives me pleasure, and as simplistic as this may sound, the hope is that it will do the same for someone else as well.

What are your biggest challenges in creating art and how do you deal with them? How do you navigate the art world?
I’m really lucky to have both time and space to work. There are still challenges, though. One of them is just those periods of time when I think what I do is pretty much shit, those times when I think, what the hell am I even doing? Social media doesn’t help. I find it very inspiring on one hand, I follow a huge number of artists and writers and book publishers, and seeing images of their work delights me. But getting caught up in ‘likes’ and comparing myself to others in terms of the quality of work and career success can be discouraging, and I have to remind myself over and over not to play that comparison game. Navigating the art world socially is actually one of my bigger challenges. I don’t put myself out there nearly as much as I could or should; going to openings, etc. I have a million reasons for that, mostly related to my mental health issues of depression, anxiety, fatigue, but I’m working on it!

What three things bring you joy?
Reading (in a cafe, preferably), making art, and walking in a big city (New York, especially, and Paris!).

What does being kind to your mind mean to you?

It means doing things I genuinely want and love to do, and finding balance in life. It also means admitting to myself and others when I need help, and when something is perhaps presently beyond my capabilities because of anxiety. I’ve become better at avoiding things that will trigger anxiety and panic attacks and things that could lead to a downward spiral emotionally.

How do you hope your art makes the world a kinder place?
I hope that people will see my art and feel a sense of hope and happiness, and with that I feel it will make the world a kinder place. It’s tempting, and feels almost as if I should create work that addresses directly all that is dark, evil, frustrating; art that is political in nature and that expresses the intense feelings I have about those things. Instead, I do the opposite. I hope my work serves a bit as an antidote, for others as it does for me. I also hope that my talking about those things, and talking about my mental illness, will open up conversations and create awareness and empathy for other’s who may be struggling.