Sheila Wolk

Sheila Wolk is one of the nation's most accomplished sports artists. She has turned the soft-edged medium of pastels into paintings of the hard action of sports. Her art is created in a mystical realm where logic, dreams and art meet and mix to create a dreamscape of enchanting beauty and fabled majesty. She fuses traditional and non-conventional means to convey the visions, dreams and realities of a world many wish they could see outside of her paintings. Wolk combines her creative talent and imagination to accurately interpret and artistically communicate elaborate notions in an easy-to-understand and visually-appealing fashion. For her work in the sporting arena, the American Sport Art Museum and Archives (ASAMA) awarded her with the 1987 Sport Artist of the Year Award.

Wolk had an auspicious beginning as an art director for a pharmaceutical advertising agency and medical illustrator, honing her skills in drawing the human form. Her first pastel sports art was created during a boxing match in 1978 and has since grown to include almost every known sport there is.

In 1980, the artist created official Winter Olympic posters for the 1980 Lake Placid hockey and speed skating events for ABC Sports. Wolk was also commissioned by the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and its Member Plans to create a group of six paintings depicting athletes in action for the 1988 Winter and Summer Olympics.

In 1984, she became the first woman to be commissioned by Major League Baseball to do the cover for the Official World Series Program. The national pastime's historical impact on American culture is vividly portrayed by a panorama of former U.S. presidents displaying their form at season openers and World Series as they throw out the ceremonial "First Pitch."

Her other works include the official poster for the 1980 New York City Marathon and a commemorative for the Women's Sports Foundation Hall of Fame's first six inductees. Football fans in the state of Alabama will quickly recognize her collage of legendary head coach "Bear" Bryant. Included in the corner of the piece is one of Bryant's famous philosophies, "If anything goes bad, then I did it. If anything goes semi-good, then we did it. If anything goes real good, then you did it."

Wolk resides in New York City, where she continues to capture the action of sport and the drama, intensity, power and grace that surrounds it with her pastels and lithographs.