Sakura of America shares a common mission with Creativity Explored, a nonprofit art center for neurodiverse and disabled artists in San Francisco. Sakura is proud to support Creativity Explored with the tools to communicate and create. Together, we strongly believe art is for everyone.

Sakura’s products have been enabling artistry in the Creativity Explored studios for decades – we’re excited to partner and share the stories and the artwork of artists who are creating today, like Cheryle Rutledge.

Cheryle Rutledge’s (b. 1957, Creativity Explored artist since 1999) work involves a series of repeated images of hearts on matte-board and cardboard cutouts of a variety of shapes. Her process involves outlining hearts of varying size in pen, marker, and acrylic paint to cover the picture plane. She then fills them in with complementary colors.

Rutledge starts the day by drawing or painting one of her signature hearts on her hand. After selecting her color scheme, Rutledge works painstakingly on each piece for a surprisingly fanciful result. In 2009, Rutledge began incorporating whimsically drawn figures into her fields of hearts, including pill bottles, elephants, and small self-portraits, adding a new and exciting dimension to her work.

While working from home in 2020, Rutledge amassed an incredible collection of new heart-filled drawings, inspiring her admirers and fellow artists to keep pursuing your art practice, no matter the circumstances.

You can find some of Cheryle’s fashions at Mode Brut, a fashion-themed exhibition on view at the at the Museum of Craft and Design through January 22, 2022.

Check out Cheryle Rutledge’s favorite Sakura products and hear about her practice in the interview below.

Favorite Products

• Sakura Permapaque Markers
• Sakura Koi Watercolor Tubes and Brush Pens
• Sakura Gelly Roll Pens

Artist Interview

As Cheryle does not always communicate verbally, her teaching artist Suda has filled out the questionnaire based on observations over the years.

Why do you love Creativity Explored?
Creativity Explored is a safe place for me to attend, make art, and be with other members.

What do you love about Sakura’s art products?
Sakura’s art materials are excellent and high quality products for beginners and professional artists to use in making art.

Why is it important to you to have good art supplies?
Because good art supplies are very important to create quality and professional artworks.

Why do you love making art? How does creating art make you feel?
Because I can express my feelings in my artworks. Also, it helps me relax as well as experiment with the art materials and the process of creating artworks.

What inspires you?
Teachers whom I am working with, and I get ideas then experiment on my own.

If someone has never made art before, what advice would you give them?
Try out the products, experiment with them, and I am sure the magic will happen.

Learn more and shop artworks by Cheryle Rutledge on the Creativity Explored website → CreativityExplored.org/artists/cheryle-rutledge

See more Creativity Explored artist spotlights right here on the Sakura website → http://www.sakuraofamerica.com/get-inspired/creativity-explored

PHOTO CREDIT: Photos by Peter Prato

ARTWORK CAPTIONS (ALL):
Artwork by Cheryle Rutledge, 2021 © Creativity Explored Licensing, LLC